Legitimising Taliban to mitigate Afghan crisis

A recent report by ‘Save the Children’ indicates that humanitarian disasters that killed children in Afghanistan could have been averted if children had access to healthcare facilities.

Since the collapse of the Ghani government last August, thousands of Afghan children have died due to malnutrition and pneumonia. The interim Afghan government had been raising this issue but nothing tangible was done last winter. Now the situation is worsening with every passing day. This is not to say that the world is not looking at the unfolding crisis, but that it is trying to help without placing administrative and financial systems needed for smooth transfer of support at the doors of the population in distress. The EU was the first to offer over $1 billion to Afghanistan but in the realisation of the support, there is no system in place that can help people receive aid efficiently.

International forums are held regularly to review the Afghan situation. The recent Afghanistan Conference 2022 convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and held virtually as well as the third ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries hosted by China expressed concerns that Afghanistan will meet an unprecedented disaster if appropriate actions are further delayed. The participants of the Afghanistan 2022 Conference have confirmed the fears I have been expressing through my writings since last August that Afghans are facing one of the world’s major crises, amid worsening humanitarian indicators like hunger and malnutrition. Technical delays, bureaucratic red tapism and egoistic approach of some countries have placed the lives of millions of Afghan children. All stakeholders who wish to help Afghans recognise that humanitarian funding is desperately needed, but on the ground, even peanuts are not reaching to people at risk.

According to the latest data released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 23 million Afghans are facing acute hunger, including nearly nine million people who are one step away from starvation. UN organisations fear that 97% of Afghans could plunge into poverty by mid-2022 and 95% of the population is not eating enough food.

The UN has appealed to the donors to provide $4.44 billion to help 22 million Afghans but the response of realisation is unrealistically low and slow. A review of the data shows that the Afghan economy was totally dependent upon foreign aids; and foreign funding during post 9/11 regimes and the absence of foreign funding and aids from foreign countries is triggering the situation.

Pakistan attended the third ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries along with Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and China. Indonesia and Qatar attended the conference as guest countries. The conference expressed deep concern over the worsening situation and announced readiness to provide further humanitarian assistance to the people, and appealed to UN agencies to step up emergency humanitarian assistance.

China, Pakistan and Russia are constantly in contact over the Afghanistan issue and have not let Afghans alone by providing economic and humanitarian support. Other neighbouring countries should also come forward by offering cooperation in such fields as trade and economy, energy, agriculture, finance and infrastructure because foreign aid cannot be a lasting solution for the Afghanistan situation. The absence of a banking system is hampering the progress of establishing trade and business in the country and the international banking system is only possible when the Afghan interim government is recognised by international economic institutions. Even China, Pakistan, Russia, Iran and central Asian countries which are supporting Afghanistan have not recognised the interim Afghan government – something that is hurting the Taliban’s quest for legitimacy.

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.—William Shakespeare