UN humanitarian agency concerns about situation in Kunduz after airstrikes on hospital

The UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday said that humanitarian needs in the Afghan city of Kunduz are largely unquantified at the moment due to lack of access and there are presently no humanitarian agencies left inside the city.

In the early hours of the past Saturday air raids struck the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, capital of the northern Kunduz province, killing at least 22 people, including three children.

An OCHA spokesperson told a press briefing here Tuesday morning that up to Monday there was ongoing fighting between armed groups and government forces, the airport was closed to civilian aircraft, and there was no road access into the city because of roadside bombs, threat of ambushes, and road blocks.

The spokesperson said that there is now no functioning trauma-care hospital in the city as the just bombed hospital was the only facility of its kind in the whole north-eastern region of the country, serving some 300,000 people in Kunduz alone.

According to OCHA, water and electricity also reportedly remained cut off in much of the city on Monday and the majority of food markets were closed.

"Thousands of people have reportedly fled Kunduz and an estimated 8,500 families have been displaced in the north-east as a result of the fighting. Identifying and responding to the internally displaced people is a priority, particularly in Takhar province where numbers are reportedly highest," said the OCHA spokesperson. Endit