{"id":47057,"date":"2021-11-29T09:23:04","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T09:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47057"},"modified":"2021-11-29T09:23:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T09:23:04","slug":"are-us-led-sanctions-worsening-afghanistans-humanitarian-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47057","title":{"rendered":"Are US-led sanctions worsening Afghanistan\u2019s humanitarian crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

International aid organisations and experts say the US-led sanctions on the Taliban government are hurting the Afghan people, and called for \u201cexplicit humanitarian exemptions\u201d for the delivery of aid to prevent a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the Taliban\u2019s takeover<\/a> of Afghanistan on August 15, the aid-dependent country was cut off from international financial institutions, while nearly $10bn of its assets were frozen by the US, triggering a banking crisis.<\/p>\n

Millions of dollars in international aid were also halted due to the sanctions.<\/p>\n

The UN and other aid agencies have been trying to navigate the sanctions to deliver much-needed aid to the country, with more than half of Afghanistan\u2019s 38 million population facing imminent food shortages in the harsh winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US government, and other sanctions imposing entities like the UN Security Council (UNSC), should do all they can to ensure that Afghans have access to the humanitarian assistance to which they are entitled,\u201d said Eileen McCarthy, the Advocacy Manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should ensure sanctions and other restrictive measures comply with international humanitarian and human rights law and do not impede impartial humanitarian activities,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\n

… You cannot hold the entire Afghan population hostage.<\/p>\n

Dominik Stillhart, the ICRC<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Humanitarian catastrophe preventable\u2019<\/h2>\n

More than 100 days into the Taliban\u2019s rule, Afghanistan\u2019s economy has nearly collapsed<\/a>, for which the UN envoy for Afghanistan blamed on the financial sanctions. Deborah Lyons told the UNSC last week that the \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d in the country was \u201cpreventable\u201d.<\/p>\n

There have been alarming reports of public hospitals unable to afford essential medical supplies or to pay staff salaries, and families offering their young daughters for marriage in return for a brideprice to help them survive.<\/p>\n

The Taliban government, which has not been recognised by any country or the United Nations, has banned foreign currency<\/a> among other measures to revive the economy, but the sudden drying up of millions of dollars in aid flow crippled banks and businesses and sent food and fuel prices rocketing.<\/p>\n

While they blame the unfolding crisis on the Taliban for not pursuing a political settlement, experts say Afghanistan\u2019s crisis was the result of international sanctions, making millions of dollars of aid that supported the previous West-backed Afghan government inaccessible to the Taliban\u2019s Islamic Emirate.<\/p>\n

The increasing economic crisis has pushed low-income Afghans to sell their household goods as they face increasing unemployment and poverty [File: Bilal G\u00fcler\/Anadolu Agency]<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe total absence of liquidity in Afghanistan\u2019s system is the result of the suspension of direct bilateral aid and freezing of the money of the central bank after the departure of international troops,\u201d said Dominik Stillhart, operations director at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), referring to the withdrawal of US-led NATO troops after 20 years of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a political legitimacy crisis\u2026 but you cannot hold the entire Afghan population hostage,\u201d he said, explaining it was impossible for an aid organisation to operate in a country without engaging with the de-facto authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to provide or maintain basic services, you have to work with the system in place,\u201d Stillhart told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft agreed: \u201cIt was one thing to navigate sanctions on the Taliban when they weren\u2019t the\u00a0de facto\u00a0government. But now they are sitting in Kabul and the question becomes, \u2018how do you conduct business or provide aid in a country without touching the government?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Afghan people sit besides sacks of food grains distributed as aid [File: Javed Tanveer\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

Aid dependence<\/h3>\n

Sulaiman Bin Shah, Afghanistan\u2019s former deputy minister of industry and commerce until August 15, said the collapse of the Afghan economy was an expected development because it was heavily dependent on international aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfghanistan was so dependent on aid and donor money in the past 20 years that the economy has been somewhat artificially created on that premise,\u201d said Bin Shah. \u201cNow that money has vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weinstein, who also served as a US marine in Afghanistan, said because the country\u2019s infrastructure and economy have been built by Washington and the international community, they cannot continue without them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfghanistan is aid-dependent and grants account for 75 percent of public spending. This made the country completely reliant on the international community\u2019s willingness to continue that aid,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Bank account holders gather outside a closed bank building in Kabul [File: Aamir Qureshi\/AFP]\u00a0<\/figure>\n

Recognising the need to circumvent sanctions on Afghanistan, the ICRC said it has continued humanitarian assistance using \u201ccreative solutions\u201d of channeling funds directly to the health, education, and municipal service sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution we found was to channel salaries directly into the pockets of 550,000 staff employees and to pay for running costs instead of through the ministry,\u201d said Stillhart, referring to 18 hospitals throughout the country\u00a0that carry out half a million consultations a month.<\/p>\n

Still, he said more needed to be done, calling for \u201cexplicit humanitarian exemptions in the UNSC regime that would allow us to deliver aid without fear of violating UN sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International aid organisations and experts say the US-led sanctions on the Taliban government are hurting the Afghan people, and called for \u201cexplicit humanitarian exemptions\u201d for the delivery of aid to prevent a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d. Following the Taliban\u2019s takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, the aid-dependent country was cut off from international financial institutions, while nearly $10bn…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}