Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on health care in Afghanistan, and based on its data, the Afghanistan chapter of the 2024 Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) report Epidemic of Violence identified 27 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in Afghanistan in 2024, compared to 119 in 2023 and 87 in 2022. In these incidents, at least 18 health workers were arrested or detained for questioning.

– Afghanistan’s communities endured significant challenges in accessing basic services, including health care, food and clean water.

– Female health workers continued to be arrested or questioned for violating the Taliban’s strict dress codes.

– With the country having one of the world’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates, Afghanistan’s clinic closures force pregnant women in remote areas to travel great distances to obtain care, often arriving too late, with fatal consequences.

Download the report data.

Published every two weeks, Insecurity Insight’s Attacks on Health Care New Brief tracks global threats and violence as well as protests and other events affecting the delivery of and access to health care. Explore our interactive map to see where incidents happened.

Blog Post: When Vaccine Hesitancy Turns Violent

Vaccinations have often been treated with suspicion in Afghanistan following reports of a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in Pakistan by US intelligence agencies and subsequent propaganda campaigns by militant groups. Insecurity Insight’s blog post for the RIAH project at the University of Manchester, UK, discusses recorded incidents of critical violence against vaccination campaigns between January 2016 and February 2022 across 16 countries including Afghanistan.