Taliban say global aid vital for Afghans
Follows UN warning that millions of Afghans could sink below the poverty line
The Taliban on Saturday urged the global community to continue providing aid and humanitarian support to its population of 38 million after the UN development agency warned that Afghanistan was on the brink of “universal poverty” as early as 2022.
In its report on Thursday, the United Nations Development Programme said that prolonged drought, the COVID-19 pandemic and political chaos that ensued after the Taliban’s return to power last month could cause the war-torn country’s poverty rate to rise, calling for “urgent action” to avert the crisis.
“Afghanistan pretty much faces universal poverty by the middle of next year,” Kanni Wignaraja, UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Director, told a news conference on Thursday, launching the report.
Nearly half of the country is already in need of charitable support, a UN statistic acknowledged by Afghanistan’s new rulers who blamed the former government led by President Ashraf Ghani for the “disaster.”
However, he said it was imperative to maintain a steady flow of aid, relaying the group’s dependence on international support nearly a month after capturing Kabul on Aug. 15.
“We are calling on the international community to maintain their aid; we are in urgent need as drought and political chaos has hit us hard, and we need to survive with the help of global humanitarian aid,” Ahmadi added.
The Taliban have maintained that their government would safeguard civilians’ rights.
The group announced its all-male interim government on Wednesday, with plans to reveal more ministries “soon.”
However, fearing Taliban reprisals and a reinstatement of the harsh form of governance that marked their rule from 1996 to 2001, tens of thousands of Afghans fled the country last month, with the UNDP report saying that the worsening economic situation could push more people to leave.
The UNDP’s emergency appeal for nearly $200m to help almost 11 million people in Afghanistan, or roughly one-third of its population, comes after the US, other global powers and the International Monetary Fund froze funds after the Taliban’s August takeover.
However, Afghanistan was already heavily reliant on aid, with over a third of the country’s GDP drawn from foreign nations.
The UN report also said the Taliban’s takeover had put 20 years of “steady economic gains at risk” and comes ahead of a UN donor conference for Afghanistan on Monday, chaired by UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres.
Aid has been trickling in from countries such as Pakistan and
Qatar, with China pledging to provide at least $31 million in emergency aid on Wednesday.
However, the economic challenges are steep, with a dearth of employment opportunities causing many Afghans to survive on less than $2 a day.
Locals are grappling with a looming crisis, with skyrocketing food prices and rising food insecurity. Qadria, a 35-year-old mother of five, told Arab News that she has turned to begging to “find bread for my children.”
“We are required to beg for bread as unemployment has increased and people can no longer support another,” she said.
The Shahr-e-Naw Park in Kabul has turned into a temporary shelter for people from the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
Enayatullah Karimi, a former finance officer of a private organization in Takhar province in the northeast of the country, moved to Kabul a few weeks ago and has no hope of returning home.
“Our lives have changed since the Taliban came back. We don’t have the financial ability to return to Takhar,” he said.