Afghanistan: MSF Condemns Violent Armed Intrusion of Kunduz Hospital

Mikhail Galustov

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemns the violent intrusion by armed members of Afghan Special Forces in the organization’s trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The incident is an unacceptable breach of International Humanitarian Law, which protects medical services from attacks.

On Wednesday, July 1, just after 2PM, heavily armed men from Afghan Special Forces entered the MSF hospital compound, cordoned off the facility, and began shooting in the air. The armed men physically assaulted three MSF staff members and entered the hospital with weapons. They then proceeded to arrest three patients.

Hospital staff tried their best to ensure continued medical care for the three patients, and in the process, one MSF staff member was threatened at gunpoint by two armed men. After approximately one hour, the armed men released the three patients and left the hospital compound.

“We are shocked by this incident,” says Dr Bart Janssens, MSF’s Director of Operations. “Since it opened in 2011, Kunduz Trauma Center has been a place where all patients can receive free medical and surgical care safely. This serious event puts at risk the lives of thousands of people who rely on the center for urgent care.”

SCORES TREATED AFTER FIGHTING IN KUNDUZ

MSF’s center is the only facility of its kind in northeastern Afghanistan, providing high level life- and limb-saving trauma care. In 2014, more than 22,000 patients received care at the hospital and more than 5,900 surgeries were performed. MSF has been able to provide this care in such a volatile environment by ensuring its medical activities are recognized and respected by the community and all parties to the conflict.

MSF has a strict no weapons policy in all its facilities. The threats to MSF personnel and patients and the inability to provide medical care in a safe environment forces us to temporarily suspend activities at Kunduz Trauma Center. We have requested urgent meetings with the Ministers of Defense and Interior to seek official assurances that our medical work will be respected and such an incident will not occur again.

“In all conflicts where MSF works, we never take sides,” says Dr. Janssens. “Our doctors treat all people according to their medical needs and do not make distinctions based on a patient’s race, ethnicity, religious beliefs or political affiliation. Any injured or wounded person in need of urgent medical care will receive it at MSF's trauma center in Kunduz.”

MSF is an international medical organization and first worked in Afghanistan in 1980. MSF opened Kunduz Trauma Center in August 2011 to provide high quality, free medical and surgical care to victims of trauma such as traffic accidents, as well as those with conflict related injuries from bomb blasts or gunshots.

In Afghanistan, MSF supports the Ministry of Public Health in Ahmad Shah Baba hospital in eastern Kabul, Dasht-e-Barchi maternity in western Kabul and Boost hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province. In Khost, in the east of the country, MSF runs a maternity hospital. MSF relies only on private funding for its work in Afghanistan and does not accept money from any government.

Amir Khan (61) was hit by a stray bullet while driving a car in the countryside near Kunduz city. Farmers had been having an argument in the nearby village that turned into a shoot-out. The bullet went through his jaw fracturing it and ripping off pieces of the bone. Amir Khan arrived at the Kunduz Trauma Centre in critical condition and it took a few days to stabilize him. Now the problem was that his injuries required a complicated reconstruction surgery that is not available in Afghanistan.
Mikhail Galustov