ROMA – 11 people were injured in an explosion that occurred this afternoon, Wednesday 23 October, in Kabul. They were transported to the Surgical Center for War Casualties in EMERGENCY in the capital Kabul. The explosion occurred at 2pm (local time, 12pm European time) in the Cinema Pamir district, PD 1, one of the busiest in the city, inside a second-hand clothing market.
There were people crowded into the thrift store. “For now, we have received 11 injured people in hospital: among them a three-year-old girl and a four-year-old, a sixteen-year-old boy, two women and six men, one of whom is in critical condition – explains Stefano Gennaro Smirnov, deputy director of EMERGENCY in Afghanistan – the explosion occurred in a thrift store when it opened and people crowded to enter. This is the Pamir Cinema neighborhood, one of the most populous in Kabul, and the victims of this attack are above all people who live in a state of serious poverty which does not allow them to have access to essential goods.”
The media system’s disinterest in Afghanistan. More than three years have passed since international forces left Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 and the country returned to the control of the Taliban government. And while it seems that the international community and the media are disinterested in this crisis, EMERGENCY continues to work in the country. In these three years, from the observatory of its three hospitals and its 40 first aid posts and clinics scattered across the territory, the NGO has seen Afghanistan sink into an economic crisis that has led 23.7 million people to have need for humanitarian assistance. Among these, 12.4 million are food insecure and almost half of the population – around 48% – lives below the poverty line.
“70% of the people arriving are war wounded.” “Despite the fact that more than three years have passed since the end of the conflict, in the first six months of the year around 70% of the patients operated on in our hospital in the capital are still considered war wounded – continues Smirnov -. We consider patients who suffer injuries from stab wounds, firearms, splinters and mines as such. Family disputes, widespread crime, attacks with explosions and shootings are the main causes.”
EMERGENCY’s work in Afghanistan. In 2024 the Organization founded by Gino Strada celebrates 30 years of humanitarian activity, has been present in Afghanistan since 1999 with two surgical centers in Kabul and Lashkar-gah, a surgical and pediatric center and a maternity center in Anabah, in the Panjshir Valley . In the first six months of 2024, over 67 thousand outpatient visits were carried out in the EMERGENCY surgical centers in Kabul, Lashkar-gah and Anabah; over 7 thousand surgical operations. Over 3,500 babies were born in the Anabah Maternity Center (Panshir).
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