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Afghanistan: UN envoy urges unbiased inquiry into fatal Kunduz hospital air strike

by IBNS 05 Oct 2015, 10:18 pm

New York, Oct 6 (IBNS): Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan, reiterated on Monday the need for an impartial investigation into the deadly air strike on the Mdecins sans Frontires (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of medical personnel, patients and other civilians this past Saturday.

In an interview with UN Radio, he said that the UN has been emphasizing the need to ensure the incident – which reportedly left more than 20 people dead and was strongly condemned by a host of senior UN officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – is investigated properly.

“We issued a series of statements which I think, collectively, are very powerful indication of our concern over an attack on a medical facility [which is] clearly protected under international law,” continued, Haysom, noting that apart from his own statements, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, had also issued a “very strong call for an independent and impartial inquiry.”

MSF has been operating the only hospital in Kunduz, which is in the northeast of Afghanistan, under extremely trying conditions. Following Saturday’s attacks, the organization announced that it is pulling out of the city.

As for the current situation in Kunduz, Haysom explained that the air strikes had further deteriorated the humanitarian conditions. Moreover, he added, there is a severe shortage of water and power in many parts of the city.

He said, “We all are conscious and concerned about the overall humanitarian situation. People have been without food. Today some shops opened but the cost of food escalated dramatically."