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UN food agency alarmed by Afghan food, fuel prices
An official with the U.N. food agency warned Friday that with Russia’s war in Ukraine taking an increasing toll on the global economy, the ripples of that conflict will further increase food and fuel prices in Afghanistan.
Currently, as many as 95% of the country’s 38 million people don’t have enough to eat or money to buy food, The Associated Press reported.
Shelley Thakral, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said that food prices in Afghanistan rose nearly 40% over the last eight months.
The WFP has spent $1 billion feeding millions of Afghans this year but needs another $1.6 billion, Thakral added.
“The worrying thing, I think and this includes Afghanistan as well as all the other hunger spots across the world, is the rise in food and fuel prices,” said Thakral.
So far, donor countries have not sidelined Afghanistan but she said they “have to dig deeper” as Europe deals with the shockwaves of the war and the 3.2 million refugees who have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.
Thakral’s remarks echoed those of U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi, who warned during a visit to Kabul on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine could siphon off money from humanitarian crisis elsewhere, including in Afghanistan, and that soaring food prices could cripple humanitarian efforts.
While most of Afghanistan’s wheat supplies come from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Thakral said the increasing food and fuel cost as a result of the war could add up to 20% to the costs of providing humanitarian assistance, AP reported.
When the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) swept to power in August, international donor money, which paid more than 80% percent of Afghanistan’s bills, dried up and the country’s economy went into free fall.
There was food on Kabul markets on Friday but Masihullah, standing by his small grocery stall, said no one has money. Most people don’t have jobs, Masihullah said.
A sack of flour costs nearly $28 and most Afghans are now below the poverty line, which means they earn $1.90 a day or less, AP reported.
Thakral said 80% of Afghans are in debt because they have had to borrow to pay for food or medicines and even working Afghans look to the WFP for food aid because they don’t make enough to be able to afford the food on the market.
A Human Rights Watch report released Thursday said that since January, about 13,000 newborns have died from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases in Afghanistan and 3.5 million children need nutritional support.
“If the countries we import food from face a challenge, we face a challenge,” said Masihullah.
“There is war between Russia and Ukraine, so we are affected … there is a high increase in prices of oil and wheat.”
A U.K. pledging summit to be held later this month expects to raise $4.4 billion to stave off a worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, said Thakral.
“Right now in Afghanistan, what we need to sustain is the attention on the people here,” she said.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is building public trust and inclusivity will come automatically, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said during his visit to northern Jawzjan province.
Addressing a gathering, Haqqani said that the “enemies” sought to divide Afghanistan under different names in the past, but now IEA will not allow this to happen.
“The enemies wanted Afghanistan to fall in a conflict, where the North, South, West and East would be divided into different islands, but Alhamdulillah, this is a Muslim nation and a patriotic nation. Alhamdulillah, all the evil circles fled the country. The then rulers had created a misunderstanding and we are removing this misunderstanding. Henceforth, the enemies’ plots will be neutralized and love and trust will increase,” Haqqani said.
Haqqani also emphasized that the Islamic Emirate is committed to the implementation of the general amnesty decree, and no one will be allowed to arbitrarily violate this decree.
“The most important thing is to build trust and bridge the gap. After building trust, inclusivity will come automatically, because the government is a trust, it is not someone’s property. Sometimes it is mine and sometimes it is one of the other brothers. The more proper the keeping, the more will be survival,” Haqqani said.
Meanwhile, Jawzjan Governor Gul Haider Shafaq said that people want an Islamic system in the country, not government posts.
On the other hand, a number of residents of Jawzjan province reiterated their support for the IEA and asked the government to address the people’s problems.
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Reports of significant drop in poppy production in Afghanistan ‘credible’: US special envoy
Reports that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) have implemented policies to significantly decrease opium poppy production this year are credible and important, US special envoy Thomas West said.
“Every country in the region and beyond has a shared interest in an Afghanistan free of drugs,” West said in a tweet.
The BBC reported on Tuesday that an investigation by the media outlet has found a marked decrease in poppy cultivation across Afghanistan this year.
The BBC reported that it traveled in Afghanistan – and used satellite analysis – to examine the effects of a decree issued in April 2022 by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada that the cultivation of poppies, from which opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin can be extracted, was strictly prohibited.
One expert quoted in the report said that poppy cultivation has declined 80 percent this year. Helmand, in particular, has seen 99 percent drop.
The Directorate of Mines and Petroleum in Kandahar says a private company, that has a five year contract, has officially started extracting “lead and zinc” from mines in Shah Wali Kot district.
Kandahar Mining and Petroleum Department Director Mawlavi Abdul Hanan said the company will build a 72 km long road from Shahr Safai district of Zabul province to Qalat city, in exchange for the mining contract.
The company officials have also assured the Islamic Emirate that they will extract the minerals in accordance with their contract.
“We do the mining in the right way and we build roads in exchange for mines,” said Rahimullah, the head of the contracting company.
Over the past few years, most mines in the country have been worked on an ad-hoc basis or illegally. Since retaking control of the country, the Islamic Emirate has systematically worked to regulate the sector and attract investors.
The Islamic Emirate has said that it intends to use the proceeds from mines to develop the country.
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