Taliban-ruled Afghanistan stares at mass starvation

Hunger could claim more Afghan lives this winter than civilians killed over the past two decades in the war-torn country

After a tumultuous 2021, Afghanistan transitioned into a new year with nothing 'happy' or 'new' about the situation in the war-ravaged country. The majority of the population continues to scramble for basic needs such as food, shelter, and fuel in the Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. As the harsh winter gripped Afghanistan, heart-wrenching images of women and children queuing up outside bakeries to get bread or a snowman made by Afghan children demanding that the World Food Programme provide food appeared on media portals, highlighting the dire situation in the country.

Factors such as war, conflict, chronic poverty, drought, widespread food insecurity have protracted presence in Afghanistan. The Covid-19 pandemic was perhaps the most recent addition to that list. Over the years, all these issues have resulted in millions of Afghans needing humanitarian assistance. However, the political upheaval caused due to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Today, the situation is alarming because the country faces severe, multi-faceted, and interlocking humanitarian, economic, and political crises.

Months after the new rulers of Afghanistan announced the "interim government", the war-torn country is on the brink of mass starvation that threatens to take millions of Afghan lives this winter - a toll that may dwarf the number of civilians killed in war and conflict over the past two decades.

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Over the past few months, the UN has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than half the country is facing "acute" food shortages. According to the UN, almost 24 million people in Afghanistan, about 60 per cent of the population, suffer from acute hunger, and about 8.7 million Afghans are coping with famine.

UNDP's resident representative in Afghanistan, Abdallah Al Dardari, said in mid-November 2021, "The US $20 billion economy could shrink by US $4 billion or more and 97 per cent of the 38 million population are at risk of sinking into poverty. We have never seen an economic shock of that magnitude, and we have never seen a humanitarian crisis of that magnitude."

The World Health Organization had predicted around 3.2 million children could suffer from acute malnutrition in Afghanistan by the end of 2021, with a million of them at risk of dying as temperatures drop. An estimated 22.8 million people, or 55 per cent of the population, are expected to face emergency levels of food insecurity between November 2021 and March 2022.

The abrupt snapping of financial aid after the Taliban seized power worsened the country's shortage of essentials. Nearly 80 per cent of the budget of the Afghan government during the US-led era came from the international community, which funded ministries and also public services like healthcare and education. To prohibit the Taliban regime from accessing the funds, the US has frozen about US $9 billion of Afghanistan's central bank reserves. Although humanitarian workers have urged Biden Administration to take radical steps to release the frozen Afghan assets, the White House has not responded to such a proposition.

There is unanimous recognition within the international community about addressing Afghanistan's looming economic and humanitarian crisis. Initiatives such as the G-20 Summit on Afghanistan, Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan, India-Central Asia Dialogue hosted by India and the OIC foreign ministers session on Afghanistan held in Islamabad, among others, extensively discussed the importance of providing aid to Afghanistan. In December, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by the US to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan while keeping funds out of the Taliban hands.

While this resolution promised to bring some respite to the Afghan people, how the aid will be delivered to them with little or no coordination with the regime in power, which the international community has not recognised, remains to be seen.

The international community must develop a mechanism to deliver aid and open a safe corridor for those at risk in Afghanistan while ensuring that they do not enforce brutal and barbaric Taliban rule in Afghanistan. It is also vital to minimise parallel mechanisms and coordinate responses to make the efforts more effective and timely.

For decades, the UN has played a vital role in Afghanistan, from coordinating humanitarian response to financing reconstruction and acting as a guarantor for peace and stability. Based on its historic role, unrivalled present-day capabilities, and past operating experiences, the UN can and should play a more significant role in Afghanistan as it struggles to deal with the current multi-dimensional and interconnected set of crises.

(Anwesha Ghosh is a Research Fellow at New Delhi's Indian Council of World Affairs)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.