Three years after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, international aid organizations are warning that the country risks becoming a forgotten crisis without sustained international support and engagement. Millions of Afghans continue to struggle in one of the world's largest, most neglected and most complex humanitarian crises.
Marking today's anniversary, a group of 10 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the country said in a joint statement Tuesday that Afghans, who rely heavily on humanitarian aid, are trapped in cycles of poverty, displacement and despair.
"Without rapid efforts to increase diplomatic engagement and longer-term sustainable funding, Afghans, especially women and girls, will be left to suffer for years to come," the statement said.
It was signed by Action Against Hunger (ACF), CARE International (CARE), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), International Rescue Committee (IRC), INTERSOS, Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), People in Need (PiN), Save the Children International, and World Vision International (WVI).
The Islamist Taliban commemorated the third anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan on Wednesday with a public holiday and a televised military parade at the former US-run Bagram airbase, among other symbolic events.
The Taliban, calling themselves the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, seized the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15, 2021, after successively capturing several provincial capitals and territories in early August of that year, as US-led international forces withdrew from the country after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.
Following the withdrawal of virtually all US troops, a Taliban offensive in the summer of 2021 quickly overran the country. In February 2020, the United States (US) and the Taliban had signed the "US-Taliban Agreement," which included US commitments regarding the withdrawal of US and allied military forces from Afghanistan and Taliban commitments regarding security.
Three years on, Afghanistan is experiencing shock after shock - the ongoing economic crisis, the legacy of decades of conflict, the effects of climate change, and the gender crisis have taken a devastating toll on the country.
The cumulative effects of violent conflict, internal displacement, drought and other natural disasters have dramatically increased humanitarian needs throughout Afghanistan. Vulnerable to natural disasters, including floods and earthquakes, Afghanistan regularly suffers from extreme weather events and environmental disasters.
Although aid organizations have been providing humanitarian assistance for the past three years, when the international community "effectively abandoned Afghanistan," current efforts cannot address the problems of poverty, unemployment, and displacement.
At least 28 percent of Afghans continue to suffer from hunger. According to the IPC's latest food security analysis, more than 12.4 million people in Afghanistan face acute hunger between May 2024 and October 2024, including nearly 2.37 million people at emergency levels of food insecurity.
This includes approximately 6.5 million children who will experience crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year. In 2024, an estimated 2.9 million children under the age of five are estimated to be acutely malnourished.
6.3 million people remain displaced within the country, and unemployment has doubled since last year. And 48 percent of Afghans live below the poverty line.
Since the rise of the Taliban three years ago, Afghanistan has faced one of the world's largest humanitarian crises. The Taliban have formed an all-male cabinet and refuse to share power with others.
The de facto rulers, however, are not recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The international community has repeatedly called on the Taliban to fulfill their commitments to respect human rights and form an inclusive government as conditions for recognition.
Yet the Taliban have imposed repressive restrictions on women, banning them from secondary and university education, from working with government and nongovernmental organizations, from traveling without close male relatives, and from visiting gyms and public parks.
“Despite the improvements in the country’s overall security situation, which has facilitated access to many new regions that were previously unreachable, there are still myriad of challenges that hinder us from reaching all those in need effectively,” the NGO statement said.
The Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) 2024 shows that an estimated 23.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 52 percent of whom are children and 25 percent of whom are women. Although humanitarian assistance has been a lifeline for Afghan communities, the 2024 HNRP, which requires $3.06 billion, has received only 25 percent of the requested funding as of August 15, 2024.
“Shrinking humanitarian funding is adversely impacting people’s daily lives, and a lack of funding for medium and longer-term programming has only heightened underlying vulnerabilities, adding to the humanitarian burden,” the NGOs said.
“The growing humanitarian financing gap combined with the discontinuation of development assistance since August 2021 are pushing the country and its people into deeper poverty and vulnerability.”
The aid agencies stress that the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan cannot be addressed with humanitarian aid alone, and that a comprehensive, sustained, and context-specific response is needed from the international community.
They say that "Afghanistan desperately needs long-term development assistance to address the root causes of poverty. "
“Diplomatic engagement is crucial to creating an enabling environment in Afghanistan that will support upscaling international aid efforts to include development projects alongside emergency assistance,” the NGOs emphasized.
The aid groups also called on the international community to pressure the Taliban to respect human rights, especially those of women.
On Wednesday, a group of 29 UN human rights experts jointly called for "stronger and more effective" international action to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan.
“We stress that there should be no move to normalize the de facto authorities unless and until there are demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified improvements against human rights benchmarks, particularly for women and girls,” the Geneva-based independent experts said in a statement.
The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their government as interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs, saying their policies are in line with local culture and Islam.
Terrorism-related international sanctions against many top Taliban leaders, the isolation of their government and the continued suspension of foreign development aid have made it difficult for Kabul to address deepening economic problems.
The World Bank reported in April that the aftermath of the Taliban takeover had seen a sharp decline in international aid, leaving Afghanistan without internal growth engines and leading to "a staggering 26 percent contraction in real GDP."
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Three years on: Afghans are paying the price for the world’s neglect, press release by ten international non-governmental organizations, published August 13, 2023
https://www.nrc.no/news/2024/august/3-years-neglect-in-afghanistan/