Afghanistan: Attack on Midwifery School in the East

An attack was underway Saturday against a school of midwives in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, one of the most conservative cities in the country frequent attacks.

According to a first report from official sources and while gunfire is still firing more than three hours after the start of the attack, at least three wounded were taken to the hospital.

However, said the spokesman of the governor of Nangarhar, Attaullah Khogyani, "57 people," most of those present in the building – students, teachers, administrators – "were put in safety but ten people are missing" about which the authorities

"Security forces surround the perimeter and enter the compound to neutralize the badailants," Khogyani added.

According to him the explosion occurred at 11:30 am (0700 GMT ). "At this point, three wounded have been sent to the hospital."

Witnesses claim that shooting is still going on.

"Attack targeted our Midwifery Training Center", Provincial Ministry of Health spokesman Inamullah Miakhil said after several residents had reported at least one loud explosion

The operation, which is still scarce, was not immediately claimed.

Witnesses told AFP that they heard several successive explosions followed by shooting. Ehsan Niazi, who was in the labor and social affairs department next to the school, also reported smoke rising from the site.

"After the first explosion I heard three more and saw three badailants rush into the street leading to the department, "he reported, pointing out that ambulances were on the spot.

Another witness, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had" heard gunfire and saw badailants scattering mines "to slow the intervention of relief and law enforcement.

"Afghan forces are defusing them in order to move forward," added this witness.

– Maternal Mortality –

Training midwives is a must in the country: UNICEF estimates that barely 45% of Afghan women receive medical badistance during childbirth

After a marked improvement in the ten years following the US intervention in late 2001 to drive the Taliban out of power, the rate of maternal mortality has deteriorated further due to a lack of skilled staff and health care facilities in remote or insecure areas, says USAID, the US development agency and one of

This rate officially stood at 396 deaths per 100,000 births in 2015 (against more than 1,600 estimated in 2002); but these figures are disputed by observers in the field who argue that many areas are out of reach of Unicef ​​or Afghan government studies.

Jalalabad, Eastern Regional Capital and Nangarhar Province in all are among the most conservative regions, and frequently the scene of attacks by the Taliban or the Islamic State (IS) group.

The last dated back to July 11, against a building of the department of the education. The operation, which had not been claimed, had killed 11.

The previous day, a suicide attack by the IS against a convoy of the Afghan intelligence service had killed 12 people, mostly civilians caught in the a service station fire unleashed by the explosion

The pressure exerted since winter by Afghan forces backed by the US military has recently made it possible to dislodge the IS from the districts it had controlled for two years, even if its presence is far from having been eliminated in the region.

mama-ach / cr

afp