In this picture taken on Sept 11, 2021, Taliban fighters offer noon payers inside the home of the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
GENEVA – The United Nations exhorted the world on Monday to raise US$606 million for Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger are spiralling since the Taliban took power and billions in foreign aid have dried up amid Western distrust of the Islamist militants.
After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, Afghans are facing "perhaps their most perilous hour", UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his opening remarks to a conference in Geneva seeking aid for Afghanistan.
The people of Afghanistan are facing the collapse of an entire country — all at once.
Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general
"The people of Afghanistan are facing the collapse of an entire country — all at once."
He said food supplies could run out by the end of this month, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said 14 million people were on the brink of starvation.
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With billions of dollars of aid flows abruptly ending, several speakers in Geneva said donors had a "moral obligation" to keep helping Afghans after a 20-year engagement.
China and Pakistan have already offered help.
Beijing announced last week it would send US$31 million worth of food and health supplies to Afghanistan. Pakistan sent supplies such as cooking oil and medicine to authorities in Kabul, and called for the unfreezing of Afghanistan’s assets.
"Past mistakes must not be repeated. The Afghan people must not be abandoned,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, whose country would most likely bear the brunt of any exodus of refugees.
"Sustained engagement with Afghanistan in meeting its humanitarian needs is essential.”
US and Norway pledge cash
The United States pledged nearly US$64 million in new humanitarian assistance at the conference, while Norway pledged an extra US$11.5 million.
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Even before the Taliban's seizure of Kabul last month, half the population – or 18 million people – depended on aid. That looks set to increase due to drought and shortages.
Fourteen million people, one out of three, are marching to the brink of starvation. They don’t know where their next meal is.
David Beasley, Executive director of UN's World Food Programme
About a third of the US$606 million being sought would be used by the WFP, which found that 93 percent of the 1,600 Afghans it surveyed in August and September were not consuming sufficient food.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley told the conference that 40 percent of Afghanistan's wheat crop had been lost, the cost of cooking oil had doubled, and most people anyway had no way of getting cash to buy food.
"Fourteen million people, one out of three, are marching to the brink of starvation. They don’t know where their next meal is," he said.
"If we are not very careful, we could truly, truly enter into the abyss in catastrophic conditions, worse than what we see now."
The World Health Organization, another UN agency that is part of the appeal, is seeking to shore up hundreds of health facilities at risk of closure after donors backed out.
Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, warned that there could be far greater displacement soon than the estimated half a million who have already sought refuge elsewhere in Afghanistan this year.
"The physical distance between our nations and Afghanistan shouldn’t mislead us," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
"A humanitarian and security crisis in Afghanistan will have direct implications across the globe. We should take collective action now."