Friday’s discovery of the bodies of ten aid workers executed by Taliban fighters in Badakhshan Province highlights the risks faced by health workers in Afghanistan. Since being ousted from power, the Taliban have regularly attacked both foreign aid workers and Afghanistan government health professionals. The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a non-profit which tracks attacks on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has recorded over 600 incidents since 2007. However, the Taliban were not the first insurgency to target health workers and humanitarians.
Upon gaining independence in 1975, Mozambique inherited a small health system designed to provide care to Portuguese colonists in urban areas. After gaining power the FRELIMO (Liberation Front of Mozambique) government attempted to kickstart a country-wide primary health care system. However, only two years after independence those efforts were hampered the start of civil war against RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance) forces.
Like the Taliban, RENAMO rebels were foremost a military organization, showing little capacity to administer territories under their control. Supported by the white regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa, RENAMO earned a reputation for incredible violence against civilians, government workers, and NGOs. RENAMO attacks on health facilities, roads, bridges, and government buildings around the country led to a widespread collapse of government health services. Between 1982 and 1990 more than 48% of primary health centers were destroyed by insurgent attacks. RENAMO kidnapped, mutilated, and executed health workers and their patients. These attacks left over two million Mozambicans without access to health care by 1990.
Attacks on health workers are not random. The provision of health services, whether by governments or NGOs is a physical manifestation of legitimate governance. RENAMO’s attacks were part of a strategy to purge regions of FRELIMO services, isolate the population from government support, and exact costs on FRELIMO’s legitimacy as the governing power. The Taliban is employing the same strategy. Taliban attacks on health workers and humanitarians aim to counter the expansion of Kabul’s legitimacy in rural regions of the country. Every vaccination program, health clinics, and hospital is a threat to the Taliban. Thus, like RENAMO before it, these latest Taliban killing are the tragic outcome of a war over the governance of the state and the respect of the people.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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