KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Around 50 schoolgirls have been poisoned and hospitalized in Daykundi province, central Afghanistan, with several in critical condition, local sources reported.
Sources told KabulNow that the incidents took place on Wednesday morning, May 7, at Neswan Kiti school in Kiti district and another primary school in Chah Chah village, Shahristan district.
According to the sources, the girls began experiencing symptoms shortly after entering their classrooms with many reporting severe body itching, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and shortness of breath.
A video obtained by KabulNow shows many of affected girls lying on the ground, weak and unconscious.
The affected students were taken to local clinics by their families and local residents. Medical teams and equipment were dispatched from surrounding areas to assist with treatment, the sources said.
The cause of the poisoning remains unclear, and local Taliban authorities have not yet commented on the incident.
This is not the first such case in the province. Last year, nearly 80 female students and teachers at a school in Kiti district also fell ill after consuming an unknown poisonous substance.
Similar poisonings were reported in 2023 in the northern Sar-e-Pol province, where at least 82 girls and their teachers were affected in two primary schools in Sancharak district.
Despite calls from the United Nations, the United States and the European Union for investigations, both past incidents remain uninvestigated and the perpetrators unidentified.
School-age girls in Afghanistan remain among the country’s most vulnerable. Worsening insecurity, poverty, and widespread malnutrition, along with Taliban-imposed bans on education beyond sixth grade, have left them increasingly exposed and fearful.
