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Red Cross to end financial support for Afghan hospitals – JURIST

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced Thursday that it will end its financial support of Afghan hospitals.In a statement to Reuters, the ICRC commented that their program in Afghanistan is expected to be phased out at the end of August. “The ICRC does not have the mandate nor the resources to maintain a fully functioning public health-care sector in the longer term,” said Diogo Alcantara, ICRC’s spokesperson for Afghanistan.After the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021, the ICRC launched the Hospital Resilience Project in November 2021. It aimed to support 33 hospitals across the region, providing necessary financial assistance to prevent the collapse of Afghanistan’s health sector. Amnesty International described the Taliban takeover as “deeply damaging to the country’s healthcare system,” leaving hospitals and health clinics with limited resources and a widespread inability to access healthcare.Alcantara described how the ICRC took the decision initially “to save the healthcare system from collapsing” due to financial pressures in the region.In March 2023, the ICRC’s governing board agreed to reduce costs with a revised annual budget of 2.4 billion CHF. As a result, their presence in Afghanistan will be reduced. However, it is expected that the Taliban-led administration will take over control of health services in the coming months. The ICRC will continue to support the region as necessary.International humanitarian aid to Afghanistan was cut drastically following the Taliban takeover, plunging the country into poverty. The economy collapsed in August 2021 when the Central Bank of Afghanistan was stripped of foreign assets.The situation in the region remains dire. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 97 percent of Afghans are living in poverty. An analysis from Human Rights Watch found “[t]wo-thirds of the country’s population is food insecure and women and girls remain most at risk.”