The overcrowded wards of the dilapidated Musa Qala district hospital in southern Afghanistan are just one of the symbols of the dramatic humanitarian crisis gripping the country, a year after the Taliban returned to power.
Exhausted hospital staff
Last month, this hospital in Helmand province was forced to close except for people suspected of being infected with cholera. The infirmary was soon filled with apathetic patients, infusion needles stuck in their wrists.
Although the clinic does not have the equipment to test for cholera, around 550 patients showed up in a few days.
“It’s very difficult,” says Ehsanullah Rodi, the hospital’s exhausted chief, who has only slept five hours a day since the influx of patients began. “We didn’t see that last year, or before,” he said.
“Nothing to eat for three or four days”
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15 after the hasty withdrawal of US-led foreign forces. While the violence has decreased significantly since then, the humanitarian crisis in the country has rapidly worsened. Poverty, most severe in the south of the country, has reached desperate levels, exacerbated by drought and rising prices since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Since the Emirate (Taliban) is in power, we can’t even find oil,” laments a woman in a hospital bed in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, with her granddaughter, a malnourished six-month-old son. .
“The poor are crushed under their feet,” this 35-year-old woman adds about the Taliban, her face hidden behind a veil.
Her grandson is being treated for the fifth time at Boost Hospital, a maze of buildings run jointly by the Afghan Ministry of Health and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
“We can’t even find dry bread,” laments Breshna, the mother of another patient. “We haven’t had anything to eat for three or four days.”
economic distress
The staff “doesn’t rest,” adds Homeira Nowrozi, deputy nursing supervisor. “We have a lot of patients who come in critically ill,” she says, because the parents couldn’t come earlier.
“We don’t know how many dead (…) we have in the districts” because many people “don’t come to the hospital,” adds Homeira Nowrozi, who struggles to make herself heard over the cries of infants.
Afghanistan’s economic distress began long before the Taliban took power, but it pushed the country of 38 million people over the edge.
The United States froze $7 billion in central bank assets, the banking sector collapsed, and foreign aid, which represented 45% of the country’s GDP, came to a sudden halt.
“If you come to the country and say, ‘I’m going to pay all the teachers’ salaries,’ that’s fine,” Roxanna Shapour said. “But then what will the Taliban do with the money they won’t spend on teachers’ salaries?”
“Less space” in hospitals
The influx of new patients means that there is “less space” and that “there are fewer staff, therefore difficulties”, analyzes the director of public health of Helmand, Sayed Ahmad.
However, the soft-spoken doctor whose desk is littered with medical books insists that “the general situation is better” than under the previous government, where corruption was rampant.
The Taliban flag now flies openly in Helmand, planted on bullet-riddled buildings.
After coveting control of the country for two decades, the Taliban rule the nation at its most ruinous. “The government clothes are too big for them,” said a man from Lashkar Gah, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Source: BFM TV
