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11 Injured in Kabul Explosion Taken to EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

On the afternoon of Wednesday 23 October, 11 people injured in an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, were brought to EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre in the city. The explosion occurred at around 14:00 local time in the busy Pamir Cinema district (PD1), at a second-hand clothes market.

“So far, we have received 11 wounded people at the hospital. Among them are a three-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy, a sixteen-year-old boy, two women and six men, one of whom is in critical condition,” explains Stefano Gennaro Smirnov, EMERGENCY’s Deputy Country Director in Afghanistan. “The explosion took place at a second-hand clothes market when it opened and people crowded to get in. This is the Pamir Cinema neighbourhood, one of the most densely populated in Kabul. Many of those affected by this attack will be living in conditions of severe poverty.”

More than three years have passed since international forces withdrew from Afghanistan on 15 August 2021. Despite decreased interest from the international community, EMERGENCY continues to work in the country. In these three years, the NGO has witnessed Afghanistan plunge into an economic crisis that has led to 23.7 million people needing humanitarian assistance. Of these, 12.4 million are food insecure and almost half the population – around 48 per cent – are living below the poverty line. [OCHA]

“Despite the fact that more than three years have passed since the formal end of hostilities, in the first six months of the year, around 70 per cent of the patients operated on in our Kabul hospital are still considered ‘war-wounded’: patients suffering from stab wounds, gunshot wounds, or injuries from shrapnel and mines,” Smirnov continues. “Family disputes, widespread crime, explosions and shootings are the main causes.”

EMERGENCY has been operating in Afghanistan since 1999 with two Surgical Centres in Kabul and Lashkar-Gah, a Surgical and Paediatric Centre and a Maternity Centre in Anabah (Panjshir), and a network of more than 40 First Aid Posts and Primary Healthcare Centres. In the first six months of 2024, the Surgical Centres in Kabul, Lashkar-Gah and Anabah conducted more than 67,000 outpatient visits and performed over 7,000 surgical operations. Over 3,500 babies were born in the Anabah Maternity Centre.