World
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.
The Taliban’s chief spokesman has firmly rejected Donald Trump’s push to “take back” Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Zabihullah Mujahid said: “Afghans will never allow their land to be handed over to anyone under any circumstances.”
But the senior Taliban member said his government had held talks with the US about reopening the Afghan embassy in Washington DC and the US embassy in Kabul.
He said: “We have discussed this matter and we wish to see the embassies reopened both in Kabul and in Washington.”
‘Several countries privately recognise Taliban’
It is four years since the Taliban swept to power and only Russia has formally recognised their government.
But Mr Mujahid denied that they have a “legitimacy problem”, claiming that many countries privately had acknowledged their leadership.
“It is not only Russia that has openly recognised the Islamic Emirate. There are several other countries that have extended recognition, though not publicly.”
The Taliban government has increasingly placed restrictions on women and girls, and girls over the age of 12 still cannot attend school.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two of the Taliban’s top leaders, including the Supreme Leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan.
Sky’s Cordelia Lynch speaks to Zabihullah Mujahid
‘Can’t promise we will reopen secondary schools for girls’
Mr Mujahid, a close confidante of the Supreme Leader, would not commit to whether girls will ever be able to return to the classroom, though. “I cannot make any promises in this regard,” he stated.
When the Taliban took power, the ministry of education said the closure of schools would be temporary and vowed that they would be reopened once it put in place policies that would ensure compliance with “principles of Islamic law and Afghan culture”.
Four years down the line, however, there is still no plan to open the doors of secondary schools to girls in the foreseeable future or allow young women access to higher education.
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Sky visits Afghan ward where babies are fighting for their lives
Taliban still can’t explain 48-hour internet shutdown
Recently, Afghanistan was thrust into a 48-hour internet shutdown causing widespread disruption with banks closed, airlines unable to operate and ordinary Afghans prevented from going online or using their phones.
The Taliban’s spokesman said he still was not aware of why the blackout occurred and would not comment on whether the government had ordered it.
“We have not received any official communication from the ministry of telecommunications. Therefore, we are not in a position to comment on the matter,” he said.
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Sky News in Kabul as internet returns
But one service provider in Afghanistan said in a customer email that the shutdown was ordered by the government.
Human rights activists claimed the shutdown was an act of censorship that harmed ordinary Afghans, including the women and girls now reliant on studying online. It followed previous restrictions on access to the internet in certain provinces in Afghanistan – aimed at “preventing immorality”.
Read more from Sky News:
Earthquake survivors fear harsh winter after villages wiped out
Hostage release talks imminent to kickstart Gaza peace deal
Cordelia Lynch speaks to the Taliban’s main spokesman
Country has ‘visible signs of recovery’
Afghanistan is in the middle of an economic crisis and has experienced severe droughts.
But in a wide-ranging interview, Zabihullah Mujahid said the country had enjoyed “relative peace and stability under a unified government” with more security and “visible signs of economic recovery”.
But malnutrition has soared in the country, and 90% of children under five are in food poverty, according to UNICEF.
Mr Mujahid said it was the “result of decades of conflict and two major invasions that devastated Afghanistan’s infrastructure and economy”.
Massive aid cuts have also played a part. But some women in a clinic for malnourished children in Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan told Sky News that the government was also in part to blame, as mothers could no longer work and earn money to feed their babies.
Mr Mujahid rejected this as a common sentiment, claiming that “men remain the primary providers” in the “vast majority of households”.
Women are no longer able to train to be doctors or nurses under the Taliban. The UN condemned the policy as “profoundly discriminatory, short-sighted and puts the lives of women and girls at risk in multiple ways”. But the spokesman insisted the country already had “a sufficient number of female doctors”.
It highlights once again the gulf between the Taliban’s policies and the rest of the world. But the leadership are confident that the country has improved under their rule and that they’re building enduring relationships with other nations that will ensure their success.
“We have qualified Islamic scholars who will deliberate on this matter and find an appropriate solution in accordance with Islamic Sharia,” he said.
A rescue operation is under way to retrieve hundreds of people stranded after a blizzard near the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, according to Chinese state media.
Around 350 trekkers have been guided to safety and have reached the small township of Qudang after rescuers cleared access to their campsites, said Chinese Central Television (CCTV).
More than 200 other people who remained stranded close to the eastern Kangshung face of Everest were also in contact with rescuers and were due to arrive in Qudang in stages, it added.
The summit of Mount Everest. File pic: Reuters
Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams had been sent to help clear snow blocking access to the area, which is at an altitude above 4,000 metres (16,000ft), according to state-backed Jimu News.
The organisation estimated that almost 1,000 people had originally been trapped after unusually heavy snowfall and rain struck the Himalayas on Friday and Saturday.
‘The weather this year is not normal’
October is a peak season, when skies usually clear at the end of the Indian monsoon.
“It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk,” said Chen Geshuang, who was part of an 18-strong trekking team that safely got to Qudang.
“The weather this year is not normal. The guide said he had never encountered such weather in October. And it happened all too suddenly.”
Eric Wen, another trekker who survived the ordeal, said: “It was raining and snowing every day, and we did not see Everest at all.”
He explained that he hardly slept in a crowded tent holding “more than 10 of us” because it was snowing so hard, the tent had to be cleared every 10 minutes to prevent a collapse.
Mr Wen added that three members of his 18-strong expedition party fell victim to hypothermia when the temperature slipped below freezing, but otherwise the group emerged largely unscathed.
The number of visitors to the remote valley of Karma, which leads to the Kangshung face, was in the hundreds this week, swelled by an eight-day national holiday in China.
It was not known if trekkers close to the north face of Everest, which is also in Tibet, had been affected by the blizzard.
Read more from Sky News:
Hostage release talks imminent to kickstart Gaza peace deal
Earthquake survivors fear harsh winter after villages wiped out
The north face attracts large numbers of visitors due to its easy access by paved road.
Landslides after heavy rainfall
To the south of Tibet in Nepal, at least 47 people have been killed since Friday after heavy rainfall triggered landslides and flash floods that have blocked roads and washed away bridges.
Thirty-five people died in separate landslides in the eastern Ilam district bordering India.
Nine people were reported missing after being swept away by floodwaters and three others were killed in lightning strikes elsewhere in the country.
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