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Afghanistan
OpinionComment
Ruqiya Anwar
Ruqiya Anwar

Opinion | Afghanistan needs urgent global action to avert economic, humanitarian disaster under Taliban rule

  • In the year since the US withdrawal, the Taliban has struggled to establish control over a war-torn country dependent on foreign aid and opium sales
  • The international community must restore its credibility and authority by swiftly intervening to ensure political and economic stability

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A family eats lunch at home in one of the poor neighbourhoods in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 21. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has said that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty, with millions at risk of famine. Photo: AP
Ruqiya Anwar
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul in August 2021, completing a swift takeover of the country that shocked many around the world. With the withdrawal of American troops on August 30, 2021, the military and diplomatic evacuation of the United States ended.
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Since the final US military aircraft left Afghanistan, the country has faced an uncertain future because of the Taliban’s efforts to establish control over a country torn apart by two decades of war and whose economy has long depended on foreign aid and opium sales.

Time is running out to alter the country’s course before its free fall under the Taliban becomes irreversible as the world’s attention shifts to Ukraine and elsewhere. Unfortunately, there is no magic solution for Afghanistan’s problems, and uncomfortable choices may have to be made amid strategic patience to produce any lasting results.

According to a recent International Rescue Committee report, the economic crisis that has gripped Afghanistan since August 2021 is now the main cause of food insecurity. It threatens the survival of close to 20 million Afghans who are going hungry amid the political unrest and economic catastrophe.

Although the rapidly deteriorating economy and the power vacuum left by the government’s dissolution forced the international community to take the lead in containing the crisis, the world needs to build an interconnected, two-pronged strategy.

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The United Nations has issued its largest-ever humanitarian appeal for a single nation, calling for more than US$5 billion this year. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed that the scale of the appeal represented the scale of Afghanistan’s despair.
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