A year on, misery, disease conquer war-ravaged Afghanistan
The heaving wards of a ramshackle clinic in southern Afghanistan are just one sign of the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that has gripped the war-ravaged country since the Taliban returned to power a year ago.
Last month, the Musa Qala District Hospital in Helmand province was forced to shut its doors to all except those suffering from suspected cholera.
The infirmary was soon jammed with listless patients, intravenous drips needled into their wrists as they recuperated on rusting gurneys.
Though the clinic lacks facilities to test for cholera, about 550 patients presented themselves within days, showing symptoms of a disease caused by a lack of basic sanitation needs: clean drinking water and an adequate sewerage system.
“It’s very difficult,” hospital chief Ehsanullah Rodi, run ragged on just five hours of sleep a night since the influx began, told AFP. “We didn’t see this from last year, or another year.”
The United Nations says Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis is the world’s worst.
Poverty in the country - felt most keenly in Afghanistan’s south - has been driven to desperate new levels, exacerbated by drought and inflation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Since the Emirate (Taliban) came into power, we can’t even find cooking oil,” said one woman, perched on a hospital cot next to her malnourished six-month-old grandson in Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital.
Afghanistan’s plight began well before August 15, 2021 when the Taliban captured Kabul on the heels of a hasty withdrawal of US-led troops and the collapse of the government they propped up. But the Taliban’s takeover pushed the country - home to 38 million people - over the edge,
The US froze $7 billion in central bank assets, the formal banking sector collapsed, and foreign aid representing 45% of GDP stopped overnight.
Over the past year, would-be donors have grappled with the conundrum of funnelling fresh funding to the ailing nation, which the Taliban rebranded the “Islamic Emirate” in line with their austere theocratic beliefs.
“How do you provide assistance in a country where you don’t recognise the government?” asked Roxanna Shapour of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
Importing humanitarian aid to address crises such as the June earthquake - which killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands more homeless - is relatively simple, she said, as it is “non-political, it’s life-saving assistance”.
Cash is also airlifted to fund food aid and healthcare, but development aid for long-term projects that could transform the economy is more complex.
“If you go in and say, ‘ I’m going to pay all teacher salaries’, that’s great. But then what will the Taliban do with the money they save from not having to pay teacher salaries?” asked Shapour.