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Famine may have been averted, but Afghan economic crisis deepens: UN envoy
Humanitarian agencies may have distributed enough aid in Afghanistan to avert famine and large-scale starvation, but the country’s economic collapse is “approaching a point of irreversibility,” the UN envoy to Kabul said on Wednesday.
UN Special Representative Deborah Lyons told the UN Security Council that it is “most urgent” to resolve the root problems of the economic crisis, but doing so will require cooperating on all issues with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) who seized power in August, Reuters reported.
“We do not believe that we can truly assist the Afghan people without working with the defacto authorities,” Lyons said in urging the council to approve a new mandate for her mission.
The IEA authorities lack international recognition six months after taking control of Kabul as the last US-led international troops departed, ending 20 years of war, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters donors cut financial aid constituting more than 70% of government expenditures and about $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets were frozen. Many of IEA’s leaders remain under US and UN sanctions.
The moves accelerated an economic collapse, fueling a cash shortage, joblessness and hunger, prompting UN warnings that more than half of the 39 million people faced starvation, Reuters reported.
Lyons told the council that UN agencies and their partners have supplied aid to nearly 20 million Afghans across the country.
“We believe, as the winter season comes to an end, that we have perhaps averted our worst fears of famine and widespread starvation,” she said.
Lyons, however, said that urgent steps must be taken to address the liquidity crisis, restrictions on international payments and constraints on the central bank.
“Six months of indecision, marked by continued sanctions albeit with some relief, and unstructured political engagement, are eroding the vital social and economic coping systems and pushing the population into greater uncertainty,” she said.
“What we have done has been only to buy a little time.”
Officials at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) say 7,000 incomplete projects of the World Bank are at risk of destruction in Afghanistan. They call on the World Bank to resume the work of these projects.
According to them, discussions have been held with the World Bank about these projects, but there has been no result yet.
“7,000 incomplete projects are being destroyed, and if the work is not started, these projects will be destroyed. We ask the World Bank to resume the work of these projects as soon as possible,” said Noorul Hadi Adel, the spokesperson of MRRD.
Meanwhile, members of the private sector also ask international institutions to resume their work in Afghanistan.
According to the officials of this sector, with the start of these projects, job opportunities will be provided for thousands of people in the country.
“These projects create employment for our people and the country will grow a lot,” said Mirwais Hajizadeh, a member of the private sector.
However, economic experts stated if the work of these projects does not start soon, they will be destroyed and the investments made in them will be wasted.
Ten people have been killed and six others injured by floods in Helmand province in the past week, local officials said on Friday.
According to officials, seven of those were members of the same family, and they were killed in Kajaki district last night.
“Most of the people moved from vulnerable areas to high lands and mountains, and thanks Allah the number of casualties is low,” Sher Mohammad Vahdat, the head of information of the Directorate of Information and Culture in Helmand, said adding rescue teams and security forces have been dispatched to help people.
It is said that the telecommunication system has also been disrupted due to the effect of floods in Kajaki district. Floods have also destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land.
Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, met with the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi and discussed issues related to Afghanistan, it was announced on Thursday.
During the meeting, Otunbayeva thanked India for “its critical humanitarian support and longstanding friendship for the Afghan people” and discussed the importance of regional and international cooperation to address prevailing challenges in Afghanistan, UNAMA said on X.
Jaishankar also said on X that the sides exchanged views on the current situation in Afghanistan.
“Underlined that India has provided wheat, medicines, pesticides and school supplies. Appreciate the role of UN agencies as partners in these endeavors,” he said.
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