RASC News Agency: In yet another blow to Afghanistan’s collapsing public health infrastructure, local sources in Kandahar have confirmed that four vital departments at the Mirwais Regional Hospital ophthalmology, pediatric surgery, orthopedics, and dermatology have been abruptly shut down under direct orders from the Taliban. This alarming development threatens to deprive hundreds of thousands of patients across the southern and central provinces of life-saving medical care. The closure comes just days after the Taliban claimed that their reclusive supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, had paid a visit to the facility an assertion shrouded in opacity, as no official footage or comprehensive statement about the visit has been released. However, staff within the hospital suspect that these closures may be tied to directives issued during or after this controversial visit.
Mirwais Hospital, a long-standing medical institution in southern Afghanistan, has for years served as a critical lifeline to patients from at least 11 provinces, offering a range of free health services. The dismantling of these specialized departments, according to health experts, not only severely reduces the hospital’s treatment capacity but also significantly increases the cost and suffering for impoverished patients, many of whom have no alternative access to care. Sources familiar with the hospital’s current operations report that services have ground to a near halt. Patients are now forced to purchase essential medications at their own expense from private pharmacies, a burden that most cannot afford amid worsening poverty. Moreover, a significant number of experienced medical specialists have reportedly resigned or left the facility, citing deteriorating working conditions and Taliban interference.
Preliminary efforts are underway to relocate the now-defunct departments to Aino Mina Hospital on the outskirts of Kandahar. However, the considerable distance from the city’s residential neighborhoods has rendered this solution largely ineffective, further complicating access for vulnerable patients, particularly children and the elderly. Despite mounting public outcry and widespread concern, the Taliban-appointed administrators of Mirwais Hospital as well as officials in the Taliban’s provincial health authority have remained conspicuously silent, refusing to provide any justification for the closures or to acknowledge the public health crisis they are precipitating.
The closure of Mirwais Hospital’s essential departments is yet another manifestation of the Taliban’s broader dismantling of Afghanistan’s healthcare sector a sector already reeling from a severe shortage of medicine, the mass exodus of trained professionals, and the collapse of international aid. Experts warn that the long-term implications of this systemic degradation could result in a humanitarian health disaster with consequences that may last for decades. Once hailed as a beacon of free and accessible healthcare in southern Afghanistan, Mirwais Hospital now stands as a grim symbol of the Taliban’s mismanagement, indifference to human suffering, and continued assault on the most basic rights of Afghanistan’s citizens particularly the right to health.
