Alwaght- Over a year after the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the humanitarian situation in this poor Central Asian country is aggravating. The World Food Program (WFP) in its recently published reported stated that 9 out of 10 Afghans cannot get enough food and in other words, 90 percent of the Afghanistan population do not have access to adequate food proportions. The report adds that the WFP helped over 21 million people affected by food insecurity across Afghanistan in 2022.
The WFP has warned about the danger of the most serious famine, especially in the upcoming winter in Afghanistan. Earlier, some international aid organizations had warned that in the coming winter, about 97 percent of the people of Afghanistan will not even have bread due to extreme poverty. In its previous reports, the WFP had also announced that the collapsed economy and the blocking of Afghanistan's assets by the US have put the country at risk of the most serious famine in 20 years.
The WFP has warned that it is one of the last Afghanistan bulwarks against famine, adding that to help 18 million Afghans suffering from food insecurity, it needs urgent $1.1 billion.
The organization further said that providing 150,000 tons of food in Afghanistan in this winter requires $173 million. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs maintains that currently 25 million in Afghanistan are living in poverty and 900,000 jobs are likely to disappear this year.
According to data provided by the World Bank, the price of basic commodities such as rice and wheat has almost doubled, and due to the lack of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and also fuel, the price of these products has more than doubled, which means that Afghanistan's domestic food production in 2022 decreased considerably.
According to reports, the rate of acute malnutrition is high in 28 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, and more than 3.5 million children are in need of food support, and thus, the entire country is grappling with food crisis.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recently reported that more than half of Afghanistan's adult population devoted their meals to feed their children for most of the past year— a figure more than four times worse than in August 2021. Six out of ten households rely on this strategy, the report suggests.
As incomes continue to shrink, Afghan households now spend almost all of their income on food (92 percent)—a figure that has steadily increased since the start of 2022.
The country faced many problems in the early months of the Taliban assumption of power, and with the help of the UN and human rights organizations, about $700 million in humanitarian aids were provided to this country, but this amount is insignificant compared to the livelihood crisis hitting the Afghans. After the start of Ukraine war, which led to a decrease in the grains exports to world markets, Afghanistan did not survive the consequences and has been involved in food insecurity more than other countries, and the dimensions of its food crisis are expanding day by day, and now it is at the level of a human disaster. Afghanistan's situation is even worse than Yemen, which has been at war and under Saudi-led all-out blockade since 2015 and this is an alert to the international community to think of measures to settle this crisis.
In addition to the food crisis, Afghanistan has also been dealing with natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes in recent months and seeing a lot of damage— something making it in need for humanitarian aid more than ever. As the winter approaches and fuel is needed more than in other seasons, the problems of Afghans will intensify.
Western sanctions burden on the Afghans
While the White House officials in the past two decades claimed that by invading Afghanistan, they brought democracy to this country and solved their problems, the situation in this country is the result of the occupation that destroyed the infrastructure of the country, setting a miserable future for the Afghan people.
Although the Americans have left Afghanistan since August 2021, the grim Western policies towards this country continue to cast a shadow over Afghans and their fate. Actually, the cause of many economic disasters of Afghanistan are the Americans and European who have intensified the humanitarian crisis in this country with extensive sanctions. According to reports, the US and Europe have seized more than $7 billion of Afghanistan assets and so far calls for their release have gone nowhere.
The US has tied the delivery of these assets to formation of a comprehensive and inclusive government in Afghanistan, and since the Taliban has not taken any positive step in this regard, Washington continues to impose sanctions against the Taliban government. In the past year, the Taliban officials repeatedly called on the West to release these assets in order to heal the economic problems, only to face Washington disregard. Although in recent months there were news about the release of some of them after the agreements between the Taliban and Washington, in practice no action was taken by the White House.
Given the UN reports and the fact that $1 billion can help solve part of Afghanistan problems, release of $7 billion can make a difference in the country's economy. But the Americans, due to individual motivations and also in service of the Western interests, have taken these assets hostage and are playing a part in the famine rocking Afghanistan. Because of the Western sanctions, Afghanistan's central bank cannot make transfers related to humanitarian aids. Even the Afghan expats cannot send money to their relatives due to the transfer restrictions.
Although the disastrous effects of two decades of occupation still weigh heavily on the shoulders of Afghans, the interim government of the Taliban, contrary to its claims, has not taken any steps to solve part of the economic problems and is only waiting for the country's frozen assets to be released in order to use them to strengthen its own government.
Retaking the power after 20 years, the Taliban more thinks about solidifying its rule than settling the country's challenges. The Taliban government is even negligent to the security, especially that of the Hazaras, a Shiite minority in the north, and increasing terrorist attacks across the country show that the new rulers of Afghanistan, contrary to their claims, have not even been successful in protecting security.
Food insecurity consequences
Although all world countries have focused on the war in Ukraine over the past six months, and all global developments have been overshadowed by this conflict, ignoring crises like Afghanistan and Yemen can bring the world face to face with new challenges.
Although the West did not pay attention to Afghanistan developments after leaving it last year, if food insecurity slides out of control, it can threaten regional stability. The food crisis in Afghanistan causes millions of people to migrate to Central Asian countries and Iran in search of food, and this flood of migration will be expensive to the neighboring countries.
With regional countries themselves struggling with economic crises, they cannot take in Afghan immigrants and therefore a new crisis is likely in the region, which will take a huge cost to contain.
From another perspective, the growing crisis serves as a booster to terrorist groups and inevitably recruits Afghans to them. Terrorists’ power gain will increase insecurity in the region, on the other hand. Furthermore, crises related to livelihood push the Afghans to cultivate opium poppy, and since 90 percent of the world drugs are produced in Afghanistan, the world should brace for negative effects. It will take high costs to fight drugs smuggling.
The food insecurity in Afghanistan is now the world's problem and if the UN makes no moves to settle it, its ramifications will overshadow all countries.
