Baby sold for $500 to save family from starvation
A DESPERATE Afghani couple have told how they sold their baby daughter for $500 to prevent the rest of the family dying of hunger.
A man offered them the £360 – half of which he has already paid – for the girl, who is only a few months old. He said that he wanted her to eventually marry his son.
The girl’s mother told a BBC News team: “My other children were dying of hunger so we had to sell my daughter. How can I not be sad? She is my child.”
The girl’s father, a rubbish collector from a rural area near Herat, in the west of the country, said: “We are starving.
“Right now we have no flour, no oil at home.We have nothing. My daughter doesn’t know what her future will be. I don’t know how she’ll feel about it. But I had to do it.”
The man who bought their daughter said he would take her when she was able to walk.
BBC film makers said they had heard stories of other families having to sell children to survive – and were themselves offered a child during their time in the country.
The broadcaster has reported the sale of the child to UN body Unicef’s child protection team.
Afghanistan is facing a huge humanitarian crisis and the situation has deteriorated sharply since the Taliban seized power in August and US-backed forces left on the orders of President Joe Biden.
International funds which propped up the country’s fragile economy have been stopped and the Taliban regime has not been recognised by most nations.
The United Nations has warned millions will die unless urgent aid reaches Afghanistan soon.