Afghanistan – – Pure evil

On Tuesday, gunmen broke into the maternity ward of Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the bloody attack, which led to gunfire with the police, which lasted hours, 24 people died.

Eighteen babies lost their mothers, said Afghan deputy health minister Wahid Majrooh, who was one of the first to visit the hospital after the attack, according to The Guardian.

According to the newspaper, two women were shot dead in the delivery room, while another was killed while protecting her son, who was lying in an incubator.

“I’m still in shock,” said Majrooh.

– Total panic

A midwife, a police officer, several nurses and two children must be among those killed. At least 15 people were injured in the attack, including children, according to a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan.

Locals have said they heard two punches, and then fired at the start of the attack around 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Around 140 people were present at the hospital, a doctor told the BBC later.

“Total panic broke out,” another doctor told AFP, quoted by the BBC.

“The perpetrators shot everyone in the hospital for no reason,” Ramaan Ali told Reuters. He witnessed the start of the attack.

After the attack, the survivors were transferred to another hospital.

“Repellent”

MSF runs the maternity ward at the hospital. In a press release on Wednesday, the organization said they were devastated by Tuesday’s attacks on pregnant women, mothers and their babies.

– As pregnant women and babies, in one of life’s most vulnerable stages, sought health services, an unknown number of attackers stormed the department through a series of explosions and shootings, which lasted for hours.

The organization condemns the attack, which it describes as “useless”, “repulsive” and “cowardly”.

– We are mourning the loss of several patients and we have indications that at least one Afghan colleague was also killed.

MSF confirms that a woman was born during the attack and informs her that both the children and the mother are fine.

– Currently, although there is still a lot of uncertainty, our medical team is doing everything possible to follow up on the newborn in the maternity ward and the wounded, provide psychological treatment to affected personnel and provide all necessary support to survivors.

The services offered by the organization at the hospital are the only ones for acute and complicated deliveries in an area with more than a million inhabitants.

Lost son

Zainab (27) had just given birth to a boy that morning. The boy was named Omid, which means hope for Dari, because he had trouble getting pregnant.

An hour before Zainab and the family were about to return home, the attack was unleashed, Reuters writes. He was in the bathroom, but he ran to his son when he heard the noise.

Zainaib had been trying to have children for seven years, but she only had four hours with her son before they killed him.

“I took my daughter-in-law to Kabul so that she would not lose the baby,” Zahra Muhammadi, Zainab’s mother-in-law, told Reuters.

One family that was not shattered is the family of Qurban Ali, 27. He learned of the attack when it reached the television news, and immediately went to the hospital.

“But I couldn’t find my wife or the child,” he told the AP.

Soon after, he received a phone call from his wife, who was crying, and said that she could escape the attack, but had no idea where her son was. The evacuees were transported to another hospital, where they were reunited with their daughter.

condemned

No one has yet taken responsibility for the attack. According to Reuters, the perpetrators were killed by the security forces during the day.