The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) confirmed on Monday that it completed delivery of its first shipment of medical supplies to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, arriving in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif aboard a Pakistani plane.
W.H.O. said it flew the aid shipment from warehouses in Dubai to Mazar-e-Sharif and will disperse it from there to 40 facilities in 29 provinces spread across Afghanistan. The U.N. agency chose the northern city because “ongoing disruptions” made the airport in Kabul unsuitable.
The plane carrying @WHO health supplies that arrived in #Afghanistan a few hours ago was loaded with the supplies earlier today by WHO’s logistics team at the International Humanitarian City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and flown directly to Mazar-i-Sharif airport. pic.twitter.com/BbX3ohVINF
— WHO Afghanistan (@WHOAfghanistan) August 30, 2021
NEWS: Life-saving supplies flown in today will be delivered to 40 health facilities🏨in 29 provinces across #Afghanistan. This is 1⃣ of 3⃣ flights planned with #Pakistan International Airlines @Official_PIA to fill urgent gaps in medicines and medical supplies in #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/nH7DenMyh3
— WHO Afghanistan (@WHOAfghanistan) August 30, 2021
On Tuesday, W.H.O.’s Afghanistan branch said deliveries to remote medical facilities have already begun, presumably without any insurmountable interference from the Taliban.
UPDATE: @WHO health supplies ✈️flown into Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday have started reaching their destinations.
Deliveries have already been made to health facilities in:
✅Mazar
✅Faryab
✅Sar-ePul
The remaining supplies are en route for delivery 🚚🚚
Watch this space! pic.twitter.com/jkKk6y5Uys— WHO Afghanistan (@WHOAfghanistan) August 31, 2021
“W.H.O. is exploring more options to get further shipments into the country until a reliable humanitarian airbridge to scale-up collective humanitarian effort is established,” the agency reported.
W.H.O. said its major challenges in Afghanistan include funding cuts from donors that may force dozens of healthcare facilities to close; the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – which saw a 27 percent spike in cases last week, and possibly more, since the Taliban takeover severely disrupted reporting; severe malnutrition, especially among children; and trauma from “mass casualty incidents.”
The 12.5 metric tonnes of supplies that arrived in Mazar-e-Sharif on Monday were enough to “partially replenish” the reserves in Afghanistan’s medical outposts and keep services running temporarily, according to the United Nations.
Youths supporting the Taliban wave Taliban flags atop a vehicle while marching with others along a street in Kandahar on August 31, 2021, as they celebrate after the US has pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war — one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. (AFP via Getty Images)
The W.H.O. said it planned more flights in the near future with aircraft provided by Pakistan International Airlines. W.H.O. Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari thanked the people of Pakistan on Monday for their “timely and life-saving” support.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi implored the international community to send aid to the Afghan people despite the Taliban takeover, noting Afghanistan has suffered from “forty years of war” and “millions” of its people require assistance.
Several U.N. committees urged the Taliban and “all other parties” to “protect the lives and respect the human rights of women and children,” and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered. The U.N. said it was “alarmed” by reports of attacks on “health workers” and “human rights defenders,” among other groups, under the new Taliban regime.
A burqa-clad Afghan woman looks for items to buy at a shop displaying used household items for sale at a market area in Kabul on August 25, 2021, which were earlier purchased from the people who faced financial adversities and those who fled the country after the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated on Monday that 10 million Afghan children are “in desperate need of humanitarian aid.”
UNICEF denounced “a series of atrocities in Kabul” by unspecified parties that counted children among the victims and reports of “children being recruited by armed groups.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) warned on Monday that Afghanistan’s healthcare system is tottering on the edge of total collapse. Like W.H.O., they feared the loss of international funding for humanitarian aid after the Taliban conquest would severely hinder efforts to distribute food and medicine.
In this photograph taken on June 8, 2021, a family member stands next to a Covid-19 coronavirus patient at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Muhammed Ali Jinnah hospital in Kabul. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
“The overall health system in Afghanistan is understaffed, under-equipped and underfunded, for years. And the great risk is that this underfunding will continue over time,” said Filipe Ribeiro, MSF’s Afghanistan representative.
Although the previous Taliban regime expelled MSF in 1998, Ribeiro said the new theocracy has been relatively cooperative to date.
“They actually asked us to stay, and they asked us to keep running our operations the way we were running them before. The relations are, so far, pretty reassuring,” Ribeiro said.
Necephor Mghendi of IFRC complained that humanitarian organizations operating in Afghanistan are unable to access funds to pay vendors and staff because the banks are closed.
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