Afghan conflict affecting health care access

The NATO military coalition announced two service members were killed this weekend in an insurgent attack in the west of the country. Earlier, Afghan officials said insurgents shot and killed a government official in eastern Afghanistan. Meanwhile, The security situation is depriving a large part of the Afghan population of access to health-care facilities.

“The country is in conflict, so a lot of the structures that were there before are not functioning well…some clinics and hospitals have been shut down, and are not usable anymore,” said Robin Waudo, The International Committee for the Red Cross spokesman in Kabul. “ There is also difficulty of people getting to those health structures that do exist.”

He told Vatican Radio medical facilities and workers have not been spared in the conflict.

“Some of the medical institutions have been directly attacked in some cases, and cannot continue to function well,” he said. “Health workers are also being obstructed from getting to their places of work because of the conflict, and this is a major problem.”

Listen to the interview by Charles Collins with Robin Waudo: