How the US can help end Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis

Afghanistan faces a severe food and humanitarian crisis, with deaths expected to outstrip those during the 20-year war
If the US has concerns that aid funding will leak to the Taliban, it should work with UN agencies to carry out badly needed relief activities

Imran Khalid

Published: 3:30am, 23 Jun 2022

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When the United States and its allies were leaving Afghanistan in August 2021, two kinds of immediate crises were predicted by everyone who was even remotely connected to the South Asian nation.

First, there was a clear indication that the return of the Taliban government would bring sociopolitical chaos to the country. Second, it was expected that the country would be catapulted into an economic crisis because of the possibility of developmental funds and aid to Afghanistan being suspended.

But no one predicted at the time that Afghanistan would face a severe food and humanitarian crisis within only a few months. Analysts expect more Afghans to die because of the current crisis than all Afghan deaths in the 20-year war that began in 2001. Most Afghan households have lost some or all of their livelihood in the past eight months.

The roots of Afghanistan’s crisis can be traced to external restrictions on the country’s banking sector and international humanitarian and development funds. In an attempt to limit the Taliban’s access to foreign assets, the US government imposed stringent restrictions on transactions with Afghanistan’s central bank.

Ever since the Taliban takeover last year, the US government has suspended recognition of Afghanistan’s government. This has practically separated the Afghan economy from the rest of the world and hampered payments for essential projects and the salaries of government officials, including teachers and health workers.

03:03

Taliban raises flag in Kabul as international community addresses humanitarian crisis

The US has frozen more than US$9.5 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank. At the same time, in addition to impeding international funding, the US has put the brakes on most financial assistance to development projects there.

Even before the departure of US troops, food insecurity and poverty were already rampant in Afghanistan after a series of droughts, political instability and extended conflict. But in the months after the Taliban takeover, the crisis aggravated swiftly.

The collapse of foreign development aid has wreaked havoc. Most Afghans are facing extreme levels of hunger, and more than a million children under the age of five are considered to be at high risk of dying from starvation.

Afghanistan is at the top of the International Rescue Committee’s annual emergency watch list of countries whose humanitarian crises are expected to worsen in the coming months. Though the law and order situation in Afghanistan has improved somewhat, the worsening humanitarian crisis has been ringing alarm bells.

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Poverty forces Afghan children to abandon dreams of going to school for work in order to survive

The Taliban regime is not in a position where it can feed the Afghan people. A large number of Afghans are facing a hunger crisis for the first time. Hunger is evident in every town, village and street across the country. Long queues outside bread shops and scuffles over food in different parts of the country are now a daily sight.

Unemployment has also reached new highs. There have been media reports of people selling their children for as little as US$175.

War, Covid-19 and climate change put millions at risk of famine

Earlier this year, the US Agency for International Development pledged US$308 million in humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people. Although that amount is minuscule compared with the billions of dollars it is likely to take to bail Afghanistan out of the food crisis, it still a ray of hope to people in the country.

At the same time, to help continue financial support for selected educational projects, including paying teachers’ salaries, the Biden administration has taken steps towards easing some of the restrictions on the types of aid humanitarian organisations can provide.

People receive food rations distributed by a South Korean humanitarian aid group in Kabul on May 10. Photo: AP

A group of lawmakers in the US Congress is also trying to persuade the Biden administration to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets to support health, education and other programmes.

Meanwhile, a cash shortage that has trickled down from banks to households and skyrocketing prices of basic items have created a grave socioeconomic crisis that could have spillover effects in the countries around Afghanistan. The international community must play a role in devising a strategy to stop and reverse this massive human tragedy in the making.

However, the US cannot absolve itself of responsibility for what is happening in Afghanistan right now. The Biden administration would have been well aware of the possible fallout of its tough financial restrictions and the freezing of Afghanistan’s assets when US troops withdrew from the country last year.

01:45

Taliban begins campaign to eradicate lucrative poppy cultivation in Afghanistan

The main concern of the White House appears to be how to safely transfer badly needed funds to humanitarian organisations in Afghanistan without involving the Taliban and the country’s banking sector. US officials are wary of the possibility that money meant to go towards humanitarian assistance could be leaked to the Taliban government if donors use Afghanistan’s central bank.

The best option would be to use the appropriate United Nations agencies to carry out humanitarian activities in Afghanistan. The White House must act now or it will face much higher moral and financial costs later.

Dr Imran Khalid is a freelance contributor based in Karachi, Pakistan