TIME: Over the past 12 years, the small family-health clinic in Melmastok, a remote mountainous community in Afghanistan’s central Daikundi province, has withstood multiple upheavals—from a Taliban insurgency to the withdrawal of international troops and the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul in 2021. Ever since, as the Taliban returned to power, once again
Farangis Najibullah, Mustafa Sarwar and Abdul Hamid Hakimi Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 15, 2025 Every two hours. That’s how often a woman dies during childbirth in Afghanistan. The staggering maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. And under the repressive rule of the Taliban, the situation is only getting worse.
Ariana: A United Nations aid official said on Tuesday that Washington’s funding pause would cut off millions of Afghans from sexual and reproductive health services, and that the continued absence of this support could cause over 1,000 maternal deaths in Afghanistan from 2025 to 2028. US President Donald Trump last month ordered a 90-day pause
Khaama: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has issued a warning regarding the high maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan, stating that the country urgently needs 18,000 midwives. The organization has warned that failing to address this urgent need in Afghanistan endangers many lives. Globally, UNFPA estimates that 900,000 skilled (trained) midwives are needed, with the
Tolo News: Residents of Yamgan district in Badakhshan said that due to the lack of medical centers and poor road conditions, maternal mortality in this district has increased. According to them, the lack of health facilities has caused at least five women to die during childbirth in each village every year. Click here to read
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 20, 2023 By Ahmad Hanayish Sahar Lewal Michael Scollon Giving birth is a life or death struggle for women in Afghanistan, where roughly one mother is believed to die every two hours from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications. Even mothers who survive face the stark reality that their newborns may not,
Tolo News: Officials at a hospital in Parwan treating COVID-19 say that the number of patients infected by the virus have increased by 70 percent, and the hospital is facing a lack of beds and other supplies. Abdul Hameed Zhekafer, a hospital official, said that in the past one month they recorded more than one
Ariana: Tribal elders and residents of Musa Khil district in Khost province have decided to fine with five thousand Afghanis as a punishment those families that prevent their daughters from going to schools. Manadeer Mangal a tribal elder told Ariana News that if we allow our daughters to go to schools and study especially medical section, the
Xinhua: Rita Hamidi, a newly graduated midwife, urged the Afghan government to provide female medical staff with proper jobs and security as they struggle to save lives in the war-torn country. “Over the past decades, the scarcity of professional midwives has been the main reason behind the high rate of maternal mortalities, particularly in the countryside.
The Guardian (UK): For years, declining death rates among pregnant women have been hailed as one of the great gains of foreign aid in Afghanistan. In reality, however, Afghan women dying in pregnancy or childbirth may be more than twice as high as numbers provided by donors would suggest. Since 2010, published figures have shown maternal