The Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) aid group announced yesterday it was pulling out of Afghanistan after more than 20 years due to security concerns and the lack of progress in an investigation into the killing of five staff.
A statement from the group, called Doctors Without Borders in English, also complained of the "co-optation" of assistance work by the US-led military, a reference to concerns that American forces blur the boundary between military and humanitarian work.
"Of course, it's the killings of our colleagues. But linked to that, we're very unhappy with the investigation," said an MSF spokeswoman in Kabul.
MSF has been in Afghanistan since 1980, shortly after the Soviet invasion, and is one of the few organizations to remain in the country through the occupation, civil war in the 1990s and the rule of the Taliban militia that was toppled in late 2001.
The decision by the Nobel prize-winning relief agency is a blow to Afghan authorities, who rely heavily on the UN and other aid groups for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction work.
The withdrawal is another sign of deteriorating security despite the presence of around 20,000 US-led troops and 6,500 NATO-led peacekeepers. Both forces are struggling to bring stability before a landmark presidential election in October.
Three foreign MSF staff, a woman from Belgium and men from Norway and Holland, were killed last month along with two Afghans workers on a remote road in the northwestern province of Badghis, which until then had been considered a relatively safe area.
Most militant attacks have taken place in the south and east, the Taliban's traditional heartlands.
MSF accused the US military of "the co-optation of humanitarian aid ... for political and military motives."
The statement was referring to around a dozen US-run Provincial Reconstruction Teams deployed across the country to carry out civilian and military operations -- ranging from building wells to gathering intelligence.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS