For the past year, in my role at Watchlist, I have researched the impact on children of armed attacks on health care services, facilities or personnel in Afghanistan and Yemen. From my research in Afghanistan—including interviews with humanitarian actors, health workers, patients, and community shura (council) members—we found that in the past two years, parties to the conflict have carried out more than 240 attacks on health care ranging from threats, extortion, detention, abduction and killing of medical personnel to forced closure, damage or destruction, looting, and occupation of medical facilities. The Taliban and other armed opposition groups (e.g., the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan Province) were responsible for the majority of incidents; however, government forces perpetrated about 20% of the attacks.
The recommendations in the report primarily focus on two interrelated thematic aims—better data collection of attacks, and accountability for perpetrators of attacks, with the hope that more information will lead to better accountability and prevent attacks. However, following the report’s publication, I have been asked multiple times by both journalists and humanitarian workers, “Do you want accountability or access to health care?”
So much of health care service provision and delivery of humanitarian aid is contingent upon ongoing negotiations between government officials, members of armed forces, the organizations providing services, community leaders, and members of armed opposition groups.
