ICRC suspends financial support for hospitals in Afghanistan

Taliban-led government is expected to take control of health services in the coming months

KABUL, Afghanistan – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has announced to cease its financial support to Afghan hospitals at the end of August.

The ICRC launched the Hospital Resilience Project in November 2021 to support 33 hospitals in the region and prevent the collapse of Afghanistan’s health sector.

In March 2023, the ICRC Board of Directors agreed to reduce costs with a revised annual budget of $2.4 billion.

The reduced budget had a direct impact on work in Afghanistan.

The Taliban-led government is expected to take control of health services in the coming months.

The situation in Afghanistan remains dire, with 97 percent of Afghans living in poverty and nutritional problems affecting two-thirds of the population.

Diogo Alcantara, the ICRC spokesman for Afghanistan, said the organization has neither the mandate nor the resources to maintain a fully functioning public health system in the long term.

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, international humanitarian aid to Afghanistan was drastically cut, plunging the country into poverty.

The economy also collapsed when the Central Bank of Afghanistan was stripped of foreign assets.

The end of ICRC financial support to Afghan hospitals is a major blow to the country’s health care system.