[Comment] Pakistan and Afghanistan: a call for health diplomacy and restraint

AI Summary

The long-standing cross-border conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan severely impacts nearly 50 million residents with health and nutrition challenges exacerbated by insecurity and economic hardship. The region experiences fragile health systems and high mortality due to ongoing violence and humanitarian crises.

The cross-border conflict affecting the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan has received scant global attention amid conflict in the Gulf region and the Middle East. Some 50 million civilians live across the long porous border between the countries,1 and face enormous health and nutrition challenges related to insecurity, displacement, stoppage of trade, and economic downturn. These border regions have seen almost constant conflict for nearly half a century (panel). During protracted humanitarian crisis in these areas excess mortality has been driven not only by direct violence but also by fragile and, at times, non-existent primary health-care and nutrition systems as well as inadequate socioeconomic development.