Mum Breastfeeds 20 Newborns After Taliban Hosp Attack

Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash

This is the big-hearted Afghan mum who has been struggling to breastfeed 20 newborn babies from a Kabul maternity unit where newborns, nurses and mothers were slaughtered in a terror attack this week.

Feroza Younis Omar volunteered to feed the babies who were left without their mothers in the attack on the Doctors Without Borders maternity unit after the Afghan capital Kabul which saw 24 people killed.

This image shows the woman, who is the mum of a 14-month-old tot, breastfeeding a baby at the hospital which militants stormed earlier this week sparking images which shocked the world.

The woman, who works at the country’s Economic Ministry, said: “All of us have been damaged by criminals who are destroying humanity in Afghanistan. I am one of those.” 

Three gunmen dressed as police officers stormed the maternity hospital in the Afghan capital on Tuesday morning.

They threw grenades before opening fire.

Khadija, one of the few survivors of the attack, revealed that she had been forced to wait to hug her newborn son for the first time as the armed group stormed the unit just hours after she gave birth.

She said the intensive care ward had been full of smoke and bullets but both she and her son survived, with Khadija herself having to hide under a table to avoid the bullets.

No group has so far claimed the attack, but the country’s president Ashraf Ghani has blamed the Taliban and asked the military to step up operations against the group.

The attackers were eventually killed in a lengthy operation by the Afghan security forces.

Following the attack, at least twenty newborns were left without caretakers and were transferred to the Ataturk Hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The hospital’s head doctor Jannat Gul Askarzada told reporters: “Twenty babies have been brought to Ataturk Hospital. One of them was sent to the children’s health hospital for orthopedic treatment.”

As the news hit the headlines in Afghanistan, many people took to Twitter to praise the mother for her efforts and a hashtag bearing her name went viral.

‘Masoom Musakhail’ tweeted:  “That is the Humanity to feed the baby of martyred Mothers.”

Meanwhile, Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment ‘Karim Sadjadpour’ called the mum “a true hero.”

Following in her footsteps, others have now stepped forward to lead by her example.

Aziza Kermani, from Kabul, told local media: “I am ready to adopt one of the babies who have lost their mother or whose families do not have the financial ability to raise them.”

Meanwhile, another resident of the capital who only gave her name as Fatima told a local outlet that she came to the hospital to help the children. 

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