Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan
[Written 7/19/08] Driving from Kandahar Air Field into the city, the difficult security situation in Kandahar and the severe challenges facing civilians become immediately apparent. Squashed in the back of an armored vehicle and wearing a bullet-proof vest, I saw the wreckage caused by a suicide bomber who’d exploded himself only an hour earlier. It was a tense environment – and the civilian population has to deal with it day after day. There is at least one suicide bomb attack every week here. In February, a suicide bomber killed 80 people at an event just outside the city. I asked my Afghan driver who was born and raised in Kandahar how he and his family coped in this environment. He sighed, shook his head and told me how the women always make an extra effort to kiss their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers goodbye. “The women never know if their men will return,” he said. “Just stepping outside is a risk. But we have to go out. We cannot be trapped inside like animals.” Gesturing towards the site of the suicide bombing, he added: “Why did he blow himself up here? There are no soldiers here. Just poor people trying to make enough money to feed their families. Tonight in my city there are even more mothers and wives left to grieve.”
Filed under: Afghanistan, Erica, Guest Blogger, Rebecca W. | Tagged: Afghan, afghani, Afghanistan, bomb, charity, civilian casualties, coalition forces, conflict, current events, development, family, humanitarian, Interview, Kandahar, military, Nato, news, non-profit, nonprofit, npo, peace, poverty, security, soldiers, suicide, suicide bomb, US military, violence, War
