Increase from previous total of 30 deaths comes after two months of investigations into US airstrikes on Kunduz facility

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The death toll from the US airstrikes on a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in northern Afghanistan in early October has risen to 42, the aid organisation has said.

The increase from the previous total of 30 deaths comes after two months of investigations into the airstrikes that mistakenly destroyed the MSF facility in Kunduz.

The revised figure includes the 14 MSF staff who were killed, as well as 24 patients and four people known as caretakers, who provided additional nursing care for patients. MSF said on Saturday the revised total followed “methodical review of MSF records and family claims, as well as patient, staff and family testimonies”.

Kunduz hospital attack: how a US military ‘mistake’ left 22 dead Read more

Patient files and medical records were destroyed in the fire that followed the missile strikes, but the charity said that extensive efforts had been made to identify those who died including cross-checking with other hospitals in Afghanistan.

This week MSF delivered a petition signed by 547,000 people to the White House calling for an independent investigation into the US airstrike, which wiped out the only hospital in the Kunduz region.

Gen John Campbell, the US commander in Afghanistan, said in November the strike was “caused primarily by human error”, but did not say whether there would be an independent investigation.



The petition urged Barack Obama to agree to an inquiry by the international humanitarian fact-finding commission – an independent body that was created under international law but has never been used.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People hold signs during an event to mark the delivery to the White House of a petition requesting an investigation into the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

MSF has criticised US forces for “gross negligence” over the hospital strike, which also triggered calls for an independent investigation from Human Rights Watch. Jason Cone, executive director of MSF in the US, said: “Only a full accounting by an independent, international body can restore our confidence in the commitments of the United States to uphold the laws of war, which prohibit such attacks on hospitals in the strongest terms.

“It is not sufficient for the perpetrators of attacks on medical facilities to be the only investigators.”

A non-binding resolution passed in the European parliament also urged an independent investigation into the hit.



In 2004, five MSF staff were murdered after working at a rural health clinic in northern Afghanistan. The killings prompted the charity to withdraw: the first time it had left a country because of security concerns. It returned in 2009.

The charity was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1999.