(Reuters) – Hospitals and clinics in Afghanistan have increasingly been targeted by armed groups over the past two years, weakening an already degraded health system, a children’s rights group said in a report issued on Monday. Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict said attacks had further restricted or even blocked medical care in a country where […]
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(IRIN) – An Afghan father recently described how his 15-year-old son lost both feet after stepping on a mine. He couldn’t get proper care in Kunduz City – the only trauma centre there had been destroyed – so he took a taxi more than 200 miles to Kabul. By the time his son received treatment, it […]
(AP) – A network of organizations seeking to protect children in conflict urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday to add 11 parties to the blacklist of countries and armed groups responsible for grave violations against children. The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict’s recommended additions included the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, which was taken off […]
(AFP) – Afghanistan is set to lay out stringent penalties for “bacha bazi” ─ sexual slavery and abuse of boys ─ for the first time, officials say, in a landmark move against the deeply entrenched practice. AFP revealed last year how the Taliban were exploiting rampant bacha bazi in police ranks to mount deadly insider attacks, […]
(HRW) – Pakistani authorities have carried out a campaign of abuses and threats to drive out nearly 600,000 Afghans since July 2016, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The returnees include 365,000 registered refugees, making it the world’s largest mass forced return of refugees in recent years. They now face spiraling armed conflict, […]
(Reuters) – When a convoy of Red Cross workers drove into remote northern Afghanistan on Wednesday with supplies for victims of snow storms, they were entering a region that had recently seen dangerous and unpredictable changes. Long under Taliban control, the corner of Jowzjan province had been infiltrated over the past year by rival Islamist militants […]
(New York Times) – Months after intense fighting between the Afghan government and the Taliban subsided on the outskirts of Kunduz, Hajji Habib Rahmani’s family decided to go ahead with a delayed wedding. Amid the festivities, Abdul Basit, one of the children playing behind the house, picked up an unexploded shell, and it blew up. Basit, […]
(ICRC) – The new paediatric ward at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar opened in September 2016. The renovated facility stands proudly in the hospital compound, among trees providing welcome shade from what has been a blisteringly hot summer. Even as the last drop of fresh paint dries, young patients are wheeled from the old ward into the […]
(Save the Children) – “The police beat us, took our clothes and boots and then pushed us back.” Aalem, Afghanistan, 12. The EU-Turkey deal has spelled a deadlier land route for refugees crossing the Balkans, with children experiencing harsh weather conditions, dog bites and violent treatment by both police and smugglers as they cross mountains and […]
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Afghanistan’s worsening security has forced about 1,000 schools to close this year, more than double last year’s total, adding to problems that children face in getting an education, officials said. Education officials fear next year could be even worse if Taliban insurgents seize more territory. “Our students are the first victims of […]
