Charity workers hit out over amount of Afghan aid

CHARITY WORKERS have condemned the British Government for doing too little to help people in Afghanistan, where they said some parents have been feeding their children grass to help them survive.

Monday marked a year since the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital Kabul after the departure of western troops, stripping the rights of many in the nation and pushing them into desperate living conditions, and Friday is Afghan Independence Day – marking 103 years since the country regained autonomy from British rule.

Christine Allen, executive director of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod), told the that Afghanistan is an example of a “much broader malaise in terms of the UK Government and its attitude to aid”.

“We’ve seen a complete shrinking of the aid package,” she said.

“The reality is that the aid that they’re giving to Afghanistan at the moment is still less than it was in 2019 – and there are twice as many people in desperate need.

“The other issue that I find really irritating is the fact that (general aid cuts) have been trumpeted as if it’s a good thing, this whole sense of ‘we’ve got to look after our own’… when, in fact, this Government is doing b **** r all to help people who are in desperate need at home as well.”

The UK doubled its aid to Afghanistan to £286m in August 2021 and matched that figure in 2022, but this came after the Government broke a manifesto promise by cutting £4.5bn from the aid budget.

In 2019, when western forces were still in Afghanistan, the UK was providing £292m.

Cafod said food scarcity is pushing families into extreme measures.