Last spring, five people from MSF were killed in northwestern Afghanistan. The media rushed in to tell us that the Taliban were to blame. I was skeptical of that at the time, decrying the reflex to find the Taliban under every rock and behind every act of violence. Using the Taliban in that way was an all too convenient screen for other agendas, but no less murderous. Failing to address the real situation only serves to make it more dangerous and more resistant to change.

This article wraps up the current state of the story. It wasn’t the Taliban.

(I should add that I was told Hajji Yacoub was the chief suspect months ago. The humanitarian worker grapevine does its best to keep us out of harm’s way and Badghis has been tagged as dangerous because of the local actors.)