Why is Doctors Without Borders running from Kunduz?

What’s the Gist?

Doctors Without Borders announced Oct. 4 it is withdrawing from Kunduz, Afghanistan after the hospital in which it was operating was bombed by U.S. airstrikes on Oct. 3. The aid group reported 12 hospital staff and 10 patients were killed and 37 people were injured in the airstrikes.

There were 105 patients and their caretakers, and 80 Doctors Without Borders staff in the hospital at the time of the attack, the NGO said in a statement.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the airstrikes were intended to hit Taliban members who have occupied Kunduz since Sept. 28.

I thought the U.S. was out of Afghanistan?

Formally, yes. Earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to leave 9,800 ground troops in Afghanistan to help train the local security forces and “to carry out counterterrorism operations.” The decision was made after consulting with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani. A full withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel is still expected by the end of 2016, except for those needed to protect American personnel in the capital city of Kabul.

And the Taliban are still a big force in Afghanistan?

The Taliban’s control over Kunduz, a major Afghan city, is its first major victory since 2001. But the group has been causing trouble for Ghani’s government since 2014.

After the death of the previous Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, there was the possibility of peace between the Taliban and the Afghan government. But then a new Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, emerged. Soon after he took became leader, Mansour released an audio message claiming the group will “continue our jihad and we will fight until we bring an Islamic rule in the country.”

So, why did the U.S. carry out the airstrikes?

Afghan security forces retaliated and have been fighting Taliban forces since Sept. 30. The U.S. airstrikes were carried out as part of that attack.

Doctors Without Borders (or MSF, for Médecins sans Frontières) said the location of the hospital had been communicated with officials in both Kabul and Washington, and staff members again informed officials in both Kabul and Washington on their exact location after the first hit on the hospital. But the hospital continued to be hit for 30 minutes after.

The U.S. Department of Defense said in the statement the airstrikes were targeting Taliban forces, but “there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called the strike on the hospital a “tragic incident.” Obama has ordered a full investigation into what Doctors Without Borders is calling a “war crime.”

What about Afghan officials?

The acting governor of Kunduz province, Hamdullah Danishi, told the Washington Post that “the hospital campus was 100 percent used by the Taliban.”

“The hospital has a vast garden, and the Taliban were there. We tolerated their firing for some time” before responding. (Hamdullah Danishi, governor of Kunduz)

MSF General Director, Christopher Stokes, said the NGO was “disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz.”

More info:

Gistory: The Head of the Taliban is Dead, Possibly Throwing a Wrench in the Peace Process

New York Times: Taliban Fighters Capture Kunduz City as Afghan Forces Retreat