Sources from Kunduz said on Friday that the residents of the city are living in a bad situation and want government’s help to end the war and ensure their safety.
According to the sources, thousands of Kunduz residents have been displaced due to the war and are facing with lack of food, water, shelter and medicine.
Local officials said the security forces retook control of Khwaja Mashd, Bandar-e-Kabul and Hawza-e Awal areas in Kunduz city on Thursday night, but according to the officials, Taliban militants have still control over Bandar-e-Khan Abad, Zakhail, Naseri and Chaman regions in the outskirts of the city.
Sources said that nearly 200 Taliban militants and around 20 security force members have been killed and wounded in Kunduz battle.
The sources also said that people have taken out to the Kunduz Airport road and a number of shops were also opened on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the Amnesty International in a press released on Thursday called on Afghan government and Taliban to facilitate swift and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief into Kunduz, where according to the organization, thousands of civilians are trapped in increasingly dire conditions.
The organization said it has interviewed medical workers and civilians stuck in Kunduz amid fighting after the Taliban launched an assault on 3 October.
According to the organization, Kunduz residents have described grim scenes as food and water supplies have been exhausted and electricity was cut. The city’s civilian hospital has run out of medical supplies and sustained rocket and gunfire attacks on 5 October.
“Civilians in Kunduz are once again at a precipice, and time is running out. Unless all parties to the conflict permit a humanitarian corridor to allow vital aid in and people to flee, we could soon be looking at a devastating humanitarian crisis,” said Champa Patel, South Asia Director at Amnesty International.
“International humanitarian law clearly prohibits launching attacks against, or from, civilian areas – those suspected of criminal responsibility must be brought to justice in fair trials,” Patel said.
The organization quoted a number of Kunduz residents as saying that “[The] Taliban are shelling indiscriminately and some of the rockets have landed in civilian areas, and two hit the courtyard of the Kunduz hospital. People are not able to take their injured to the hospital or bury the dead bodies because of the ongoing fierce fighting in the city and there is no ambulance service to take the casualties to the hospitals.”
According to Amnesty International, a doctor at Kunduz civilian hospital complained that medical supplies were running low and that Taliban fighters were harassing medical workers: “The Taliban are calling [the hospital] and asking doctors to provide them with medical equipment or threatening them, [ordering them] to come to the front line and treat their wounded soldiers.”
The hospital is understaffed and has run out of medical supplies and food for patients. Most hospital staff members haven’t slept for several nights, he said.
The organization said in the press release that a female doctor at the hospital reported that since the conflict started the Kunduz hospital treated more than 200 people wounded in the conflict, some were released from the hospital while the majority had to be hospitalized due to the seriousness of their injuries.
Another doctor also told Amnesty International that, due to the shortages and the constant barrage against the hospital, most non-conflict related patients as well as some wounded people were taken to the neighboring provinces by their families. But it is unknown whether they managed to escape as all the roads out of the city are either blocked or under siege.
Tolonews
