Afghanistan: Here’s What Happens In A ‘Safe Country’

Since Friday 10 August, there has been constant fighting for control of Ghazni, a city of 280,000 people, three hours’ drive away from Kabul. Civilians were trapped for several days due to the unrest, and it was difficult to evacuate those who had been wounded.

Water and food are running out, the electricity and telephone networks aren’t functioning.

Our First Aid Post in Ghazni continued to operate during the fighting, only stopping for a single day due to the security risks faced by our staff.

So far, we have received 40 injured patients at the Surgical Centre in Kabul from Ghazni and 10 from Saydabad, another area in which there has been fighting. Some of them took days to get to the hospital.

In this country, that the European Union considers ‘safe’, the capital Kabul suffered yet another attack last Wednesday. This time, the target was a school; we received 10 injured boys at our hospital.

There is also fighting in the area around Lashkar-Gah. Our First Aid Posts are receiving victims from the clashes – six of them were transferred to our Surgical Centre last Thursday alone, and another seven were already dead on arrival at the First Aid Post.

And we consider this to be a ‘safe country’?