Updated August 15th, 2022 at 15:13 IST

Afghanistan: Kabul children's hospital struggles to cope

Yet a year on from when the Taliban took over the country's capital Kabul, it is under-resourced and running out of much-needed medical supplies.

Image: AP | Image:self
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This is one of the best children's' hospitals in Afghanistan.

Yet a year on from when the Taliban took over the country's capital Kabul, it is under-resourced and running out of much-needed medical supplies.

British news channel Sky News visited the Indira Gandhi Hospital and witnessed babies being squeezed into cots, two or three at a time.

There are 500 patients packed into the hospital yet there's technically only capacity for 300.

After the Taliban seized the capital without significant fighting last August, foreign aid has been dramatically reduced.

Visitors to the hospital include one woman, who is desperate to feed her baby girl,  who is so hungry she cries constantly in her mother's arms.

Taliban members can be seen walking through the packed hospital.

Although the country's healthcare system has been perpetually under served for years, the exit of the US has made the situation worse.

In the year since the takeover, the former insurgents have imposed significant restrictions on girls and women, limiting their access to education and work, despite initial promises to the contrary.

The Taliban has remained internationally isolated and largely cut off from the flow of international aid enjoyed by the Ghani government.

The Taliban has struggled to govern and halt the sharp economic decline that has pushed millions more Afghans into poverty and hunger.

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Published August 15th, 2022 at 15:13 IST