Crying babies dimmed by hunger fill this Afghanistan hospital – where parents fear each day might be the last
You can see, feel, hear the distress in Badakhshan’s Provincial Hospital in Afghanistan.
Warning: This article contains content some readers may find distressing.
The halls are heavy with the sound of crying babies. The rooms, full of malnourished children, many two to a bed. Their frail, fragile bodies expose their wasting bones, with some so weak they’re dependent on oxygen tanks to breathe.
Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented crisis of hunger. More than 4.7 million women and children require urgent treatment for malnutrition, according to the UN. And 90% of children under the age of five are in food poverty.
The hospital team in Badakhshan, in the northeast of the country, are doing all they can to keep the children alive. But increasing numbers are dying.
In the last three months alone, roughly one baby died every three days here. Fifty-three have passed away so far this year – that’s a 50% increase on the same time last year.
Faisal is 12 months old. He’s severely malnourished and has acute diarrhoea too. But like many on this ward, he has other serious complications.
Among these is hydrocephalus, a condition that causes water to gather around his brain. His poor mother is so exhausted, she’s lying on the floor by his bed.
Baby Faisal is only 12 months old
As she sits down to speak with us, she reveals she has already lost three children to malnutrition.
“I am worried about him and what might come next,” she tells me.
“I’ve already lost three of my children. My first daughter died at eight years old. Two more of my children passed away when they were two-and-a-half years old.”
The ward is full of lost-looking eyes, dimmed by hunger.
Baby Asma is malnourished
A horrifying thing to watch
Asma is 13 months old. But she weighs little over nine pounds (4kg) – less than half of what she should.
Doctors fear she might not survive the night. But she’s put on oxygen and by the morning, she thankfully starts to improve.
“I’m really afraid,” her mother Khadijah says as her eyes fill.
“Of course I’m afraid, I’ve cried so much. I’m so thankful to the doctors, they’ve kept my baby alive. I’m so grateful to them,” she says.
Asma’s mother says she is really afraid for her child
But it’s touch and go for her daughter, and there are long periods when her chest fails to rise and fall.
It’s a horrifying thing to watch – imagine as a parent sitting day and night, wondering whether the next breath might be her last.
There is a stream of desperate cases coming through the doors here.
Masouda’s family travelled 13 hours to get her help
Today, there are 20 babies to just 12 beds. Sometimes, it is even more crowded.
There are suddenly two new arrivals. One of them, little Masouda. Her family travelled 13 hours to get here – spending what little they had left.
She, too, has to be quickly placed on oxygen and she’s painfully thin. Doctors tell us they fear she won’t make it.
The team are doing an incredible job during a hugely demanding time. But they need more staff, more medicine, more equipment.
Hospitals and health clinics across Afghanistan have suffered major funding cuts. The US, which was Afghanistan’s biggest aid donor, this year pulled almost all of its funding to the country. And the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls have proved a major barrier for many international donors.
Women gather in Badakhshan Provincial Hospital in Afghanistan
It’s having a direct impact on children’s chances of survival.
Daniel Timme, chief of communication at UNICEF, said: “The nutrition situation for children in Afghanistan is very serious and the numbers speak for themselves. Over 3.5 million children under five are acutely malnourished, including 1.4 million suffering life-threatening forms of wasting.
“It must be clear to everyone: when funding drops as we are seeing it now in a context with such high levels of malnutrition, preventable child deaths rise.”
A vital lifeline
In rural areas, poverty is as extreme as the landscape, and help for families with malnourished children is getting harder to reach.
Layaba Health Clinic is a vital lifeline.
The waiting room is full of mothers looking for medical assistance for their babies. Some women here tell us the Taliban’s restrictions on them working and earning money have also played a part, making it harder for them to feed their families.
“They are to blame,” one woman says with surprising candor.
“Every girl had her own dreams. I wanted to be a doctor. I took my responsibility for my children seriously. And I wanted to support my husband too.”
A baby looks up at her mother at Badakhshan Provincial Hospital
Another woman tells us she earned more than her husband as a teacher, but now finds herself unable to contribute financially.
The Taliban’s response
In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the malnutrition crisis was the product of decades of conflict.
“We have had to start from zero to rebuild and restore our national resources. The Islamic Emirate is making every possible effort to address these challenges.”
Mr Mujahid said his government had a five-year plan to “tackle malnutrition, unemployment, and other pressing social issues”.
In response to the complaints of the women we spoke to, he said that men in the “vast majority” of Afghan families were the breadwinners and claimed the Islamic Emirate had made “significant efforts to promote vocational opportunities for women”.
Community health worker Harira
But under the Taliban, women can no longer train to be doctors, nurses and midwives. And in remote villages, community workers like Harira are often the only lifeline – a project part-funded by UNICEF.
She goes door-to-door carrying baby scales, carrying out check-ups, trying to teach families about what to feed their children and when needed, get them to clinics and hospitals for treatment.
It saved Ramzia’s son’s life.
She had measles when she was pregnant and her son Faisal was very underweight.
“His legs and hands were as small as my fingers. Now he’s much better,” Harira says – beaming as she delights in the weight he has now put on.
“I was afraid I’d lose him,” Ramzia says. “He was so weak. But Harira came here and taught me how to feed him and give him milk when he needed it.”
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Reeling from death, fighting for life
Keeping children alive in this climate is a battle.
Nasrullah and Jamilah, who live on the outskirts of Fayzabad, are holding their two-month-old twins.
Nasrullah and Jamilah at the grave of their daughter, Shukriya
But they’re also in the throes of grief – on a journey to the grave of the baby they lost only a month ago. Her name was Shukriya. She was 18 months old.
“She was our child, we loved her. I will never forget her, so long as I’m alive. We really tried, we went to the doctors for check-ups, for ultrasounds, for blood work – we tried our very best. But none of it could save her.”
Both parents say they feared their twins could also face the same fate. Shukriya’s grave is covered with one of her babygrows. It is haunting to see. And there are other little graves next to hers.
Deaths aren’t documented in a lot of these communities. But locals tell us more and more children are dying because of malnutrition. A silent, searing loss that is spreading.
At least 12 people have been killed in a suicide bombing outside the gates of a court in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, the country’s interior minister has said.
At least 27 other people were also wounded after the bomber detonated his explosives next to a police car.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle”.
Mr Naqvi added that authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the attack.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but authorities have recently struggled with a resurgent Pakistani Taliban.
The explosion, which was heard from miles away, occurred at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending hearings.
More than a dozen badly wounded people were screaming for help as ambulances rushed to the scene.
“People started running in all directions,” said Mohammad Afzal, who claimed he was at the court when he heard the blast.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Pakistani security forces earlier said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other attackers targeted the facility in a northwestern province.
The authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, but the group denied involvement in that attack on Monday evening.
The assault began when a bomber attempted to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
The area had, until recent years, served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda and other foreign militants.
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According to local police chief Alamgir Mahsud, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three others managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block.
The army’s commandos were among the forces conducting a clearance operation, and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into Tuesday, Mr Mahsud said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced both attacks and said those responsible must be brought to justice swiftly.
“We will ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and held accountable,” he said.
Mr Sharif described attacks on unarmed civilians as “reprehensible”, adding: “We will not allow the blood of innocent Pakistanis to go to waste.”
At least eight people have been killed and at least 19 others injured after a car exploded in New Delhi, say Indian police.
The blast, which triggered a fire that damaged several vehicles parked nearby, happened at the gates of the metro station at the Red Fort, a former Mughal palace and a busy tourist spot.
New Delhi’s international airport, metro stations and government buildings were put on a high security alert after the explosion, the government said. The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
The city’s police commissioner, Satish Golcha, said it happened a few minutes before 7pm.
“A slow-moving vehicle stopped at a red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle, and due to the explosion,
nearby vehicles were also damaged,” he told reporters.
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Local media said at least 11 people were injured and that Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh state had been put on high alert after the incident
Police officers and forensic technicians work at the site of the explosion. Pic: Reuters
The site of the explosion. Pic: Reuters
One resident, who did not give a name, told NDTV: “We heard a big sound, our windows shook.”
Sanjay Tyagi, a Delhi police spokesman, said they were still investigating the cause, while the fire service reported that at least six vehicles and three autorickshaws had caught fire.
Images show the burnt-out remnants of several cars and forensic officers at the scene.
The scene has now been sealed off. Pic: Reuters
Home minister Amit Shah told local media that a Hyundai i20 car exploded near a traffic signal close to the Red Fort. He said CCTV footage from cameras in the area will form part of the investigation.
“We are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation, taking all possibilities into account,” Shah said. “All options will be investigated immediately, and we will present the results to the public.”
The investigation is being conducted by the National Investigation Agency, India’s federal terror investigating agency, and other agencies.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the blast.
He posted on X: “May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by authorities.
“Reviewed the situation with Home Minister Amit Shah Ji and other officials.”
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It is a moment few could have imagined just a few years ago but the Syrian president, Ahmed al Sharaa, has arrived in Washington for a landmark series of meetings, which will culminate in a face-to-face with Donald Trump at the White House.
His journey to this point is a remarkable story, and it’s a tale of how one man went from being a jihadist battlefield commander to a statesman on the global stage – now being welcomed by the world’s most powerful nation.
Mr Sharaa became leader of Syria after the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime in December last year.
Before that he went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al Jolani.
During Syria’s brutal civil war, he was the leader of the Nusra Front – a designated terror organisation, the Syrian branch of al Qaeda.
Back then, the thought of him setting foot on US soil and meeting a US president would have been unthinkable. There was a $10m reward for information leading to his capture.
Ahmed al Sharaa meeting Donald Trump in Riyadh in May. Pic: AP
So what is going on? Why is diplomacy being turned on its head?
After 14 years of conflict which started during the so-called Arab Spring, Syria is in a mess.
Mr Sharaa – as the head of the transitional government – is seen by the US as having the greatest chance of holding the country together and stopping it from falling back into civil war and failed state territory.
But to do that, Syria has to emerge from its pariah status and that’s what the US is gambling on and why it’s inclined to offer its support and a warm embrace.
Donald Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Ahmed al Sharaa in May. Pic: Saudi Press Agency
By endorsing Mr Sharaa, it is hoping he will shed his past and emerge as a leader for everyone and unite the country.
Holding him close also means it’s less likely that Iran and Russia will again be able to gain a strong strategic foothold in the country.
So, a man who was once an enemy of the US is now being feted as a potential ally.
Mr Sharaa meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow in October. Pic: Reuters
There are big questions, though. He has rejected his extremist background, saying he did what he did because of the circumstances of the civil war.
But since he took power, there have been sectarian clashes. In July, fighting broke out between Druze armed groups and Bedouin tribal fighters in Sweida.
It was a sign of just how fragile the country remains and also raises concerns about his ability to be a leader for everyone.
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Can Syria’s new president be trusted?
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Nonetheless, Mr Sharaa is viewed as the best chance of stabilising Syria and by extension an important part of the Middle East.
Get Syria right, the logic goes, and the rest of the jigsaw will be easier to put and hold together.
The visit to Washington is highly significant and historic. It’s the first-ever official visit by a Syrian head of state since the country’s independence in 1946.
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Top shot: Syrian leader shows off his basketball skills
The meeting with Donald Trump is, though, the really big deal. The two men met in Riyadh in May but in the meeting later today they will discuss lifting sanctions – crucial to Syria’s post-war reconstruction – how Syria can help in the fight against Islamic State, and a possible pathway to normalisation of relations with Israel.
The optics will be fascinating as the US continues to engage with a former militant with jihadi links.
It’s a risk, but if successful, it could reshape Syria’s role in the region from US enemy to strong regional ally.
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