Humanitarian non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) is concerned about a decrease in funding for aid operations in Afghanistan
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2019) Humanitarian non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) is concerned about a decrease in funding for aid operations in Afghanistan amid growing medical needs in the country, Gaetan Drossart, MSF operational coordinator in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said on Tuesday.
"We feel sometimes a bit lonely as a medical humanitarian actor in the country and this reflects a trend where we see that there is less and less money in Afghanistan for health care. There is less and less actors supporting the Ministry of Health and the population to get access to that health care. This is a worrying trend because we see that the needs are actually increasing," Drossart stated at a MSF press briefing.
Djoen Besselink, the head of MSF mission for Afghanistan, told Sputnik in December that the MSF was implementing its projects in six Afghan provinces. According to him, the experience gained by the mission showed that over the past 10 years, the quality of medical services in the country had significantly decreased, with Afghans experiencing problems with access to medical services in the country.
Afghanistan has long been in a state of turmoil, with the government fighting the Taliban radical movement, which has been holding vast territories in rural areas under its control and regularly launches offensives in key big cities. The situation has been exacerbated by the activities of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015. As Afghan and foreign military have been working to put an end to hostilities in the country, humanitarian organizations have been making considerable contribution to the stabilization of situation in the country.
