Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis Requires Immediate Action

Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis

Human Rights Watch recently stated that international donations to Afghanistan should take immediate action to ensure that critical aid reaches Afghans facing famine and collapsing health systems following the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021. They must also devise a concerted plan of action to address education, banking, and other serious matters that require collaboration.

Due to security concerns, staff evacuations, closures, and legal ambiguities, most of the previous Afghan government is no longer functional, and humanitarian relief and other assistance supplied by UN agencies and civilian organizations have been severely hampered. UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a warning on August 31: “A humanitarian disaster is approaching.”

Human Rights Watch’s associate Asia director, Patricia Gossman. “To avoid exacerbating an already terrible situation, donors should agree to support international agencies and nongovernmental organizations that can give emergency food, health, and education aid, as well as develop a plan to address assistance directly with the Taliban.”

Afghanistan is in the midst of a massive economic downturn. Food and other basic prices have soared, despite the fact that most banks are still closed, and the UN has warned of cash shortages and possible food shortages. Moreover, 30% of the country was enduring extreme food insecurity before the Taliban’s takeover; now it’s over 40%.

In December 2020, UNICEF reported that 3.1 million of Afghanistan’s nearly seven million children under the age of five were severely malnourished, implying that “a startling 1 in 2 children under the age of five is in need of acute malnutrition treatment services to save their lives.”

Most international aid to Afghanistan’s government agencies and institutions was discontinued immediately before and after the Taliban took control. The Taliban have cut Afghanistan’s Central Bank off from the international financial system and access to the country’s foreign currency reserves.

The International Monetary Fund has also denied Afghanistan credit and assets, purportedly at the behest of the United States, including around US$440 million in Special Drawing Rights the bank has set up in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Central Bank of Afghanistan is unable to receive fresh paper Afghan currency produced in Europe due to previous UN Security Council resolutions putting sanctions and other restrictions on the Taliban for terrorism-related conduct.

The complex set of sanctions imposed on the Taliban by the United Nations Security Council, as well as sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and many other governments, should be reviewed to ensure that they do not obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid by non-governmental organizations.

The school system, which now enrolls nearly seven million students, 38 percent of whom are girls, will urgently require additional foreign finance. Nongovernmental organizations have played an important role in education, but they only educate a few hundred thousand pupils outside of the state system. Donor states should encourage the Taliban to open all schools and let girls and women to attend at all levels without fear of being intimidated or threatened.

Nongovernmental organizations’ main function in the health sector has been to deliver services on behalf of the government. They cannot replace the state system, which has relied on international funding delivered to the government through a World Bank-managed trust fund before being distributed to provincial groups. The Taliban should keep the system in place and pledge not to discriminate in the provision of services.

What does the fall of the Afghan government mean for Europe?

The escape route

The sudden loss of Afghan government forces and the Taliban’s takeover of power stunned Europe, sparking a heated discussion about the consequences for European strategy. While the United States was the driving force behind the Western engagement in Afghanistan and set the policy, other European countries contributed significant troops and resources to the fight. Now that effort is a shambles, Europeans are faced with a slew of inevitable questions. In the first instance, they are concerned with the best means to get their countrymen, as well as those who worked with them, out of harm’s way. However, in the future, they must consider the lessons learned in Afghanistan for their policies on security, stability, relations with the US and other regional powers, and migration, among other things. This collection brings together policy professionals from across the ECFR’s programs to discuss how the Taliban’s control affects Europe’s key interests and significant partners.

NATO

The dramatic conclusion of the Afghanistan mission will unavoidably raise the issue of military interventions in the future. Since 2014, NATO's focus has switched back to its fundamental purpose of deterrence and territorial defense, from out-of-area deployments. NATO member nations are experiencing a wave of intervention weariness. The United States is clearly unwilling to act as the "world's policeman" after the "forever wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the Obama administration, this could already be observed in Syria.

European dependency over the US

As a result, the pressure on Europeans to participate in crisis management in their own backyard has intensified. The European Union will have to increase its commitment to crisis prevention, stability, and peacebuilding in the future. The Europeans' reliance on American skills has been amply proved by the Afghanistan mission. The Europeans would be unable to evacuate their own soldiers and local Afghan forces from Kabul without US military assistance.

Germany Questioned

Simultaneously, the disastrous Afghanistan operation has many Europeans questioning if military deployments are even necessary. Many observers and officials, particularly in Germany, think that the operations in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan have taught us that we should no longer engage in this type of action. Many people wonder what the years of training Afghan armed forces, deploying European soldiers, and investing vast sums of money have yielded.

No more persuasion about

This is to be assumed that European politicians will find it more difficult to persuade their citizens of the benefits and legitimacy of military deployments elsewhere. European member states will have to examine their current military missions, which might have substantial significance for France and Germany's commitment to the Sahel.

No place for the same mistake again

Simultaneously, Europe cannot isolate itself from the world's problems or imagine itself as a blessed island. Instability will come to Europe if Europeans are no longer committed to regulating their surroundings. It is critical not to make the same mistakes that were made in Afghanistan. Rather than overburdening requirements, future military interventions must have a clearly defined and feasible goal, as well as the tools to achieve it.