Bombs burn patients in hospital beds
MSF withdraws staff from violent Kunduz
KABUL: Medical charity MSF said yesterday it has withdrawn staff from the embattled Afghan city of Kunduz, a day after an apparent US bombing raid on its hospital which the UN said could amount to a war crime.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 19 people were killed, some of whom burned to death in their beds as the bombardment continued for more than an hour, even after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit.
It is the only medical facility in the whole northeastern region of Afghanistan that can deal with major war injuries. Its closure, even temporarily, could have a devastating impact on local civilians.
“The MSF hospital is not functional anymore. All critical patients have been referred to other health facilities and no MSF staff are working in our hospital,” said Kate Stegeman, a spokeswoman for the charity.
“I can’t confirm at this stage whether our Kunduz trauma centre will reopen or not.”
The air raid came five days after Taliban fighters seized control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz, in their most spectacular victory since being toppled from power by a US-led coalition in 2001.
The medical charity condemned the bombings as “abhorrent and a grave violation of international law”, demanding answers from US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan. It said Afghan and coalition troops were fully aware of the exact location of the hospital, having been given GPS co-ordinates of a facility which had been providing care for four years.
It added that despite frantic calls to military officials in Kabul and Washington, the main building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms was “repeatedly, very precisely” hit almost every 15 minutes for more than an hour.
MSF said some 105 patients and their caregivers, as well as more than 80 international and local MSF staff, were in the hospital at the time of the bombing.
“The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round,” said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF’s head of programmes in northern Afghanistan.
“There was a pause and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.
“Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds.”
Twelve staff members and at least seven patients, among them three children, were killed, while 37 people were injured.
Nato earlier conceded US forces may have been behind the bombing, after its forces launched a strike which they said was intended to target militants.
“The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation,” a statement said.
The incident has renewed concerns about the use of US air strikes in Afghanistan, a deeply contentious issue in the 14-year campaign against Taliban insurgents.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for a full and transparent probe, noting: “An air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime.”
He added: “This event is utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal,” he said.
MSF’s withdrawal comes as Kunduz grapples with a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire between government forces and insurgents. At least 60 people are known to have died and 400 to have been wounded in the past week’s fighting.
“Such attacks against health workers and facilities undermine the capacity of humanitarian organisations to assist the Afghan people at a time when they most urgently need it,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The Taliban’s offensive in Kunduz, their biggest tactical success since 2001, marks a major blow for Afghanistan’s Westerntrained forces. Afghan forces, backed up by their Nato allies, claim to have wrestled back control of the city.
When the bombing started at 2.08am (4.30am Thai time) on Saturday morning hospital staff members doing what they have been doing there for years: saving lives.
Earlier, a large group of passengers injured in a road accident had arrived at the compound’s wide gates, according to Abdul Rauf, a logistics specialist who was on duty at the hospital.
Doctors were treating the patients late into the night when the hospital’s main building came under bombardment, Mr Rauf said, waking him and his colleagues who were sleeping in a basement area.
“When I came outside, I saw bodies burned,” Mr Rauf said.
Despite the government claiming to have regained control of the city, fighting has continued to rage around it as government forces backed by US air power seek to drive out Taliban militants.
The hospital had already been improvising for days.