An elderly man was killed in an ambulance of Swedish Committee for Afghanistan during a transport to the SCA hospital of Mehtarlam in Laghman province on Thursday. The ambulance was ambushed and fired at by an armed opposition group when transporting two wounded policemen. The killed person was a village elder who accompanied one of the two wounded policemen in the ambulance.
It was on Thursday August 1st when a local police vehicle was attacked by a remote controlled bomb in Kuza Qala area of Bad Pakh district in Laghman province. The explosion left two local policemen (ALP) seriously injured. The government forces brought the victims to the nearby SCA clinic in order to transfer them to the Mehtarlam public health hospital in a SCA ambulance.
The two wounded policemen were accompanied in the ambulance by the SCA ambulance driver, four other ALP policemen and a local elder in his 60s.
When the ambulance reached to the Kapargale area armed opposition fighters ambushed and opened fire at the ambulance. The village elder, a relative to one of the wounded policemen, was killed by the gunfire burst. The ambulance itself sustained minor damage, but it could continue the journey. The two policemen died of their previous injuries before reaching the hospital. No other persons were injured during the attack against the ambulance.
”We are very concerned about the attack against our ambulance, says Secretary General Anna-Karin Johansson of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.
”Our task is to provide health care to the injured and sick, and it is important that all warring parties in Afghanistan respect health facilities as a neutral zone. Otherwise it might affect our ability to deliver services needed by the Afghan people, says Anna-Karin Johansson.
Violence and assault against public health facilities is an increasing problem in some Afghan regions. Swedish Committee for Afghanistan clinics have previously been assaulted, both by Afghan security forces, armed opposition groups and ISAF in Laghman, Nangarhar and Wardak.
This was the second incident against the SCA health clinic in Bad Pakh district since 19 July 2013, when Afghan Local Police intruded and searched the clinic.
The Geneva Convention states that medical personnel as well as fixed and mobile medical units are to be respected by all warring parties, and are under no circumstances to be attacked.
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan has already discussed ambulance attack in Laghman with the Security Plan Working Group of Ministry of Health, the Directorate of Health and the Province Governors Office.
”The Ministry of Public Health has promised to take initiative to a dialogue with NGOs, local communities, donors and other stakeholders to improve the situation. Other health providers face the same problems as SCA. This incident highlights the importance of such a process”, says Secretary General of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, Anna-Karin Johansson.