Afghanistan: ‘One of the world’s worst humanitarian crises’

A woman wearing a burka walks along a road towards her home after receiving free bread distributed as part of the Save Afghans From Hunger campaign in Kabul on 18 January 2022.
A woman wearing a burka walks along a road towards her home after receiving free bread distributed as part of the Save Afghans From Hunger campaign in Kabul on 18 January 2022.

Since the Taliban took control on 15 August 2021, Afghanistan has been suffering a severe humanitarian crisis. UN figures show 95 percent of Afghans going hungry. The situation has been exacerbated by the U.S. decision to freeze the Afghan Central Bank’s assets and international sanctions that are crippling an already fragile economy.

The Afghan economy was already in a terrible state when the Taliban seized Kabul a year ago, with half the population living below the poverty line. The situation has only worsened since then. International aid accounted for 80 percent of the Afghan state budget – but it was cut off upon the Taliban victory, prompting economic collapse and depriving many Afghans of basic necessities. 

“Afghans’ lives were turned upside down on August 15, 2021,” said Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghanistan specialist at Human Rights Watch. “People are dying of hunger amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

© France24 2022

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