Medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres on Wednesday announced that it will withdraw from Afghanistan because of the killing of five of its staff and the danger of further attacks.
The Nobel Prize-winning group, known as Doctors Without Borders in English, said it was pulling out also because it was unhappy with a government investigation into the June 2 deaths and with the “co-optation of humanitarian aid” by U.S.-led forces here “for military and political motives.”
The group said in a statement that it regretted having to leave Afghanistan, where it has been operating for 24 years, but added: “today’s context is rendering independent humanitarian aid for the Afghan people all but impossible.”
About 80 international volunteers and 1,400 Afghan staff worked for the agency in Afghanistan before the June attack, which killed three Europeans and two Afghan staff members in northern Badghis province.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.