Forced from their homes by fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces, thousands of families seek refuge in a Kabul park.
Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
When the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghans had endured 22 years of war. The Taliban were on the rise. Little has changed after an additional 20 years of war and suffering.
Close colleagues: a British soldier with an Afghani translator after a suicide attack on a convoy of Western troops in Kabul, 2007.
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
Western governments have a very poor record when it comes to looking after those foreign nationals who have risked their lives for them.
A patient is connected to an oxygen tank at the Afghan-Japan Communicable Disease Hospital for COVID-19 patients in Kabul, Afghanistan, in June 2020. Afghan media has reported that COVID-19 patients are dying in government hospitals due to shortages of medical oxygen.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Decades of armed conflict in Afghanistan has destroyed health-care infrastructure and the reconstruction efforts have failed to provide accessible healthcare, exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis.