Doctors Without Borders to Keep Providing Medical Aid in Afghanistan, Taliban Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Afghanistan, Gaetan Drossart, has told acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi that the organization will continue providing medical services in the country, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Thursday.

Drossart and Muttaqi met on Thursday in the middle of a crippling humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, as the country suffers severe food shortages resulting from drought and poverty, and financial shortfalls in the health care system caused by the suspension of humanitarian aid by the West after the Taliban* took over.

"Today, Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with the representative of Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan, Gaetan Drossart, and his accompanying delegation. Drossart clarified their activities and emphasized the continued provision of medical services in Afghanistan," Balkhi wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Drossart shed light on their operations & emphasized continuation of health services in Afghanistan.

H.E. Muttaqi thanked MSF for its humanitarian services, assuring them security and comprehensive cooperation.

— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) September 30, 2021

The Taliban officials, in turn, thanked the organization for providing humanitarian services, assuring MSF employees working in Afghanistan that they would be safe in the country and provided with assistance if necessary.

Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have suspended financial aid to the new Afghan government, which previously accounted for nearly 75% of Afghanistan's public expenditure, while the US has frozen billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank.

After the Taliban seized control of the country, Doctors Without Borders has been among the few health organizations not to flee, running an inpatient therapeutic center for people with acute malnutrition, a clinic for displaced people, and a COVID-19 treatment center in Herat, the country's third-largest city located in the west.

*A terrorist organization banned in Russia