BBC investigates Afghan maternal deaths after US aid cuts

When Shahnaz entered the labor, his husband Abdul called them a taxi to take them to a single medical facility that can be accessible.

“He was very painful, or he says.

A 20 -minute driving distance was in the village of Shesh Polish in the northeast Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, Afghanistan. It was the place where two older children were born.

Abdul sat next to Shahnaz and relieved him as he passed over his gravel rails to reach help.

“But when we reached the clinic, we saw it was closed. I didn’t know it was closed,” he said.

WARNING: Readers can find some sad details in this article.

The clinic at the Shesh Polis is one of the 400 medical facilities closed in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world after the dismantling of the Trump administration of the US International Development Agency (USAID).

A single -storey structure with four small rooms, the Shesh Polinic, a white paint that robs its walls, deals with the USAID posters everywhere with information and guidance for pregnant women and new mothers.

It doesn’t look too much, but it was a critical life line in the mountainous, non -forgiving land, which is an important reason for Badakhshan’s lack of access historically high mother mortality rates.

Every month there was a trained midwife who helped approximately 25-30 delivery. There was a drug and a stock of injection and also provided basic health services.

Other medical facilities are far from the village of Abdul, and Shahnaz has no risk of traveling on rugged roads. Abdul did not have the money to pay for a longer journey – renting a taxi, approximately one quarter of his monthly income as a worker, 1,000 Afghani ($ 14.65; 12,70 £). So they decided to return home.

“But the baby was coming and we had to stand on the edge of the road,” Abdul said.

Shahnaz delivered his daughters to the car. He died soon, bleeding. A few hours later, their babies died before they were named.

Abdul, “I cried and screamed. If the clinic was open, my wife and child could be saved.” He said. “We had a difficult life, but we lived together. I was always happy when I was with him.”

Şahnaz does not even have a photo to be held.

If the mother and the baby were treated in the clinic, there was no certainty that they would survive, but without him, they did not have a chance to underline the undeniable effect of US aid deductions in Afghanistan.

For decades, the United States has been the largest donor in Afghanistan, and in 2024, US funds have surprisingly created 43% of all aid to the country.

The Trump administration justified that there were reliable and long -standing concerns about the fact that it has benefited to terrorist groups, including the Taliban … Taliban. US government added this They had reports At least $ 11 million “siphon or enrich the Taliban”.

The report refers to the US Department of Foreign Affairs Afghanistan Restructuring was made by the General Inspector (Smoking). He told the government, which was controlled by the Taliban by the USAID partners, the US taxpayer money of $ 10.9 million in the “taxes, wages, duties or public services” was paid.

The Taliban government denies that he is helping money.

“This claim is not true. Help is given to the UN and the NGOs in the provinces through them. They determine who needs help and distribute them themselves. The government is not involved.” He said.

The policies of the Taliban government, especially the restrictions on the most harsh women in the world, meant that after four years of power, it was still not recognized by most of the world. At the same time, an important reason for donors to get away from the country.

The United States insists that no one dies because of aid cuts. The deaths of Shahnaz and his baby are not recorded anywhere. Neither of them are numerous others.

The BBC documented at least half a dozen first hand in areas where the USAID -backed clinics are closed.

Next to Shahnaz’s grave, the villagers gathered around us pointed to the other two graves. They said that we both had women who died at birth in the last four months – Daulat Begi and Javhar. Their babies survived.

36 -year -old Gül Jan, who was not far from the cemetery, met Khan Muhammad, who died at birth five months ago. Baby babies Safiullah died three days later.

Khan Mohammad said, “When he got pregnant, he would go to the clinic for check-up. But he closed in the middle of his pregnancy. There was a lot of pain and blood loss during delivery.” He said. “My children are always sad. Nobody can give them the love of a mother. I miss her every day. We had a sweet and loving life together.”

A driving distance of about five hours from the Shesh Polic Cawgani, another village where a USAID -backed clinic was closed, Maidamo’s grieving father Ahmad Khan showed us a room in the mud and clay house, where the baby died by giving birth to my karim.

“If the clinic was open, he might have survived. And even if he was dead, we wouldn’t regret it by knowing that he had tried the best of the medical officials. Now we regretted and pain. America did it to us,” he said.

He tells us how terrible it is to give birth at home in another house with a few lanes away. His three other children were born in the Cawgani clinic.

“I was so scared. We had midwives, medicines and injections in the clinic. I had nothing at home, there was no painkillers. It was an unbearable pain. I felt life separated from my body.

The girl named Fakiha died three days after her birth.

The closure of the clinics in the villages caused patients to increase in the birth ward of the main regional hospital in the state capital interest.

It is risky to reach it with the treacherous view of Badakhshan. A terrible photo of a newborn baby, who was delivered on the way to Faizabad and caught his neck before going to the hospital, was shown.

We visited the hospital in 2022 and stretched, this time the scenes we saw were not seen.

There were three women in each bed. Imagine that you are in labor or you have just gone through one miscarriage and you have not had a bed to lie down.

This is what Zuhra Shewan has to endure.

“I was bleeding violently and there wasn’t even a place to sit. It was really hard. When a bed was free, a woman could start bleeding.”

Hospital Director Shafiq Hamdard, “There is 120 beds in the hospital. Now we have accepted 300 to 305.”

While the patient inflated, the hospital also faced sharp cuts in financing.

“Our annual budget was 80,000 dollars three years ago. Now there is $ 25,000.” He said.

Until August this year, as much as last year’s last year’s death was recorded. This means that mother mortality can increase up to 50% compared to last year.

Newborn deaths increased by about one third in the last four months compared to the beginning of the year.

Razia Hanifi, the midwife of the hospital, says he was exhausted. “I have been working for the last 20 years. This year is the most difficult due to extreme crowd, resource shortage and trained personnel shortage.” He said.

However, there is no reinforcement due to the Taliban government’s restrictions on women. Three years ago, all higher education was banned, including medical education for women. Less than a year ago, in December 2024, training was banned for midwives and female nurses.

In a secret place, we met two female students who were in the middle of education when they were closed. They did not want to be defined because of the fear of retaliation.

Anya (name has changed), when the Taliban took over, they were both in graduate classes at the university. When they were closed in December 2022, they started midwife and nursing training because it was the only way to find training and work.

“I was depressed when this was banned. I was crying and I couldn’t eat day and night. This is a painful situation,” he said.

Karishma (changed) said: “There is already a shortage of midwives and nurses in Afghanistan. Women will risk them at home without further training.”

We asked Suhail Shaheen how the Taliban government could justify the prohibitions that effectively prevent access to health for half of the population.

“This is our internal issue. These are our problems, how to handle them, how to think, how to make a decision, this is a internal thing. This depends on leadership. They will decide on the needs of the society.”

While access to medical services is seriously restricted, the wave of overwhelming blows is at a serious risk for women of Afghanistan, for health and life rights.

Additional Reporting, Photography and Video: Aakriti Thapar, Mahfouz Zubaide, Sanjay Ganguly

The best image with Abdul’s daughter and son.