After Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemned the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA)’s decision in a press release on 29 December 2022, some of the organisation’s female employees voiced their fears for the future and their frustration.

Kabul, 30 December, 2022 - After months of continuous restrictions placed on the female population of Afghanistan, limitations placed on their participation in everyday life, access to education, and most recently even the right to work for non-governmental organisations, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the Islamic Emirate’s erasure of women from social life in the country.

In 2022, MSF teams around the world continued to respond to crises, old and new. While COVID-19 was not the emergency it was in previous years, new challenges arose. The war in Ukraine escalated in February; the political, humanitarian and economic crises in Haiti deteriorated severely; cholera emerged on an exceptional scale in several countries. 

Following the earthquake that struck Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan on the night of 21 to 22 June, MSF sent teams made up of medical and logistical staff to the worst-affected areas.

The Afghan healthcare system has been fragile and plagued by major gaps for years now, and the suspension of international aid as a result of the recent political developments has further deteriorated the situation.

In Herat, Médecins Sans Frontières is witnessing a worrying increase in malnutrition, says Mamman Mustapha, former Project Coordinator for MSF in the province.

Fighting in the city of Kunduz in north-eastern Afghanistan ended on 8 August. During the clashes, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) transformed its office space into a temporary trauma unit to treat the people wounded. That unit is now closed and on 16 August all patients were transferred to the nearly-finished Kunduz Trauma Centre that MSF had been building since 2018.

After months of fighting on the outskirts of Herat in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also known as the Taliban, took control of the city on August 12. MSF is running an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (IFTC), a clinic for displaced people, and a COVID-19 treatment centre in Herat.

In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the future of many essential aid and healthcare programs is uncertain. 

Médecins Sans Frontières staff Christopher Stokes and Jonathan Whittall discuss how the organisation's principles of neutrality, independence and impartiality have been the foundation of current work in Afghanistan—and how essential these principles are going forward. 

Conflict has been steadily increasing in Afghanistan throughout 2021, with the region becoming increasingly insecure since announcements in April of US and NATO forces withdrawing their troops. With these troops gone, Afghan forces and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan—also known as the Taliban—are fighting for territory in clashes that continue to claim thousands of lives while crippling public infrastructure. 

MSF staff continue to treat patients in Afghanistan, adapting to the increasingly fragile situation and performing lifesaving surgery on victims of the violence.

After 19 years of active conflict in Afghanistan, people’s humanitarian needs are not being met and women and children are disproportionately affected.