Skip to main content
Maternal and paediatric health care in Bamyan province
19-year-old Naqiba leaves the MSF-supported Band-e-Amir community health facility after receiving a postnatal consultation. Afghanistan, April 2023.
© Nava Jamshidi
People struggle to access medical care in Afghanistan, where – even as the government has collapsed and uncertainty has set in – we remain to address people’s needs.

MSF focuses on emergency, paediatric, and maternal healthcare in Afghanistan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

We work in one hospital in Helmand province in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. We also run a maternity hospital in rural Khost province, a drug-resistant tuberculosis programme in Kandahar, and a trauma centre in Kunduz. We treat malnourished children, who have been displaced, in Herat province.

Major attacks on MSF hospitals have occurred in recent years; in October 2015, US airstrikes destroyed our trauma centre in Kunduz, killing 42 people. An armed group attacked our maternity wing at Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul in May 2020, with 16 mothers and an MSF midwife among those killed. In the wake of the attack, we made the difficult decision to withdraw from the hospital in Kabul, leaving women in the area without critically-needed emergency obstetric care.

In August 2021, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (also known as the Taliban) entered the city of Kabul as the government collapsed. MSF teams have stayed in place and continue to provide care.

What are we doing in Afghanistan?

Our activities in 2023 in Afghanistan

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2023.

MSF in Afghanistan in 2023 In 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued to support Afghanistan’s struggling health system by providing specialised healthcare across the country. We also launched an emergency response after earthquakes hit Herat province.
Afghanistan IAR map 2023
Country map for the IAR 2023.
© MSF
in 2023
 
Afghanistan

MSF teams already treating wounded in Afghan quake town

Crisis Update 26 Mar 2002
 
Afghanistan

Two vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan near completion

Project Update 25 Mar 2002
 
Afghanistan

MSF and the Refugee Council of Australia say repatriation to Afghanistan would be inhumane

Press Release 13 Mar 2002
 
Afghanistan

MSF report: Alarming food crisis in northern Afghanistan

Project Update 21 Feb 2002
 
Afghanistan

Alarming food crisis in northern Afghanistan

Press Release 21 Feb 2002
 
Refugees, IDPs and people on the move

The responsibility to protect

Project Update 15 Feb 2002
 
Afghanistan

Severe increase in malnutrition in Mazlakh camp

Press Release 6 Feb 2002
 
Afghanistan

Identify yourselves

Project Update 1 Feb 2002
 
Afghanistan

The number of severely malnourished children in the province of Faryab on the rise.

Press Release 18 Jan 2002
Up Next
4 December 2018