Pakistan Tells Doctors Without Borders to Pull Out of Tribal Areas

6 years ago
Pakistan Tells Doctors Without Borders to Pull Out of Tribal Areas
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, works out of two health facilities in the Kurram district of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas region in Pakistan, which has been plagued by militancy over the past decade
and was the location of many American drone strikes targeting commanders from Al Qaeda and other militant groups.
13, 2017
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan on Wednesday told the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders to stop its work and leave the country’s impoverished tribal areas
that border Afghanistan, the organization said, ending its 14-year stay in the volatile region.
Catherine Moody, the country representative for Doctors Without Borders in Pakistan, said in the statement
that the organization was "saddened by the decision" to force it to halt its work in the region, noting that it had provided medical services there for 14 years.
Local officials said that Doctors Without Borders provided essential medical care in the tribal
areas, which have some of Pakistan’s poorest health services and lowest literacy rates.
The official who notified Doctors Without Borders that its operations would need to be shut down said
that he was simply following orders from officials in Peshawar, the administrative and economic hub of the tribal areas, and did not have any information about the reasons for the decision.
Pakistan said that We have been asked to close our medical activities in Kurram Agency,

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