Last March, IRIN reported that Taliban forces were blocking polio vaccination programs in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. In one case, a government polio vaccinator, doing field work, was kidnapped by Taliban forces:
“They slapped my face. They held me for eight hours before releasing me,” the 35-year-old said. “They made me promise that I would not vaccinate any more children – threatening to kill me if I did.”
The targeting of health workers was confirmed by purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmad, stating “If [aid workers] won’t stop their work, we will target them, like we’ve targeted them in the past”.
Open warfare against health workers is a de facto acknowledgement by the Taliban that health services are a successful counterinsurgency strategy. Afghanistan is one of only four countries with endemic polio and, as such, vaccination programs can be an effective strategy for winning hearts and minds.
The concept of polio vaccination programs as a COIN strategy fits into a larger argument I have been developing, that health represents not just an indicator of success / failure in war, but is itself a front. That is, health in war is not simply an effect of battle but, in some circumstances, a cause of battle.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
Want more? Subscribe to Conflict Health through RSS or email.
Comments on this entry are closed.