The House of Representatives recently passed the $839 billion National Defense Authorization Act to fund the U.S. military through 2023. Among hundreds of items, including the creation of a “Space National Guard” and the piloting of a plant protein research and development program, the bill prohibits the Pentagon from by transporting “currency or other valuables” to Afghanistan. The measure aims to weaken the Taliban, but as reported by The Intercept, it also restricts the transport of food, medical supplies and other necessities of life to Afghans.
Given that 95 percent of Afghans do not have enough food and, according to estimates, 97 percent of them are already falling into poverty, the bill would put Afghanistan at risk of an even greater public health disaster. While the US has imposed extensive sanctions against the Taliban since 2001, the Treasury Department introduced two blanket licenses in September 2021 to facilitate the continued flow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Given that the United States is by far the country’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, the NDAA’s sweeping restrictions would be a particularly critical blow to Afghans.
This is not the first time that the US has used aid as a blunt political weapon in Afghanistan. Next week will mark the one-year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan – a 20-year occupation in which the US military embraced humanitarian aid as a counterinsurgency strategy to undermine support for the Taliban. This strategy, however, encouraged poorly executed, unsustainable projects and encouraged corruption.
For example, the USAID invested $18.5 million in 2008 to build two hospitals in eastern Afghanistan, but did not share those plans with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health until a year after construction began. Besides being marred by poor construction and delayed completion, these hospitals cost about five to six times more to operate and maintain than existing hospitals in the region. An audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction of one of the hospitals reported that “it is unclear what steps USAID took to determine whether the Department was able to operate this facility.” The fingerprints of similar US mismanagement over decades have contributed to the current crisis.
Empirically, there is little evidence to suggest that continued denial of humanitarian aid will force the Taliban to change their repressive policies. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. The Taliban remain largely indifferent to the suffering of millions of Afghans and the many health crises in their country. The current version of the NDAA may make US lawmakers look tough, but the social breakdown only plays into the hands of the Taliban.
Given these conditions, we strongly urge the Senate not to pass—and the President not to sign—the bill without authorizing the delivery of medical and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
In November 2021, we wrote for Nature Medicine about the public health crisis in Afghanistan, arguing that the international community has a moral and practical obligation to continue providing aid to the country. Another option was to risk jeopardizing access to basic health care and reversing decades of infrastructural progress. The past year has confirmed our worst nightmares.
Afghanistan’s health system is actively collapsing, with outbreaks of infectious diseases including measles and acute watery diarrhea. Hospitals are overburdened and underfunded, unable to provide electricity, run ambulances or feed patients. Many doctors have fled the country, while those who remain have not been paid for months. The country’s response to Covid-19 has been crippled by a shortage of ventilators and medical oxygen, while only 10 percent of the Afghan population had been vaccinated by May and millions of doses remained unused. These shortcomings could have an impact beyond Afghanistan’s borders, as new variants of Covid-19 evolve amid low vaccination rates.
By cutting aid in the name of counter-Taliban action, the US is punishing a society already suffering under tyrannical rule.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this collapse is Project Sehatmandi, which was the backbone of Afghanistan’s health care system with more than 20,000 medical personnel in 2,309 facilities before the Taliban took over last year. The World Bank suspended funding for the project in August 2021, leaving millions of vulnerable Afghans without basic care. Although the World Health Organization and UNICEF are struggling to sustain Sehatmandi, the International Rescue Committee predicts that 90 percent of the country’s health clinics are now at risk of closure.
This is a devastating turn of events. In 2018, 87 percent of Afghanistan’s population had access to care within two hours, with more than 3,000 functional health facilities across the country. Between 2007 and 2017, life expectancy rose from 52 years for women and 53 for men to 63 years for all, while maternal mortality has halved since the 1990s. Afghanistan, one of two remaining polio-endemic countries (along with Pakistan), has made a strong commitment to eradicating the virus. The Taliban have offered nominal concessions, such as allowing safe access to polio campaign workers in some areas, but these hard-fought gains continue to be undermined by a general indifference from both the Taliban and the international community.
By cutting aid in the name of counter-Taliban action, the US is punishing a society already suffering under tyrannical rule. In June, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan, killing at least 1,000 people and injuring at least 1,500. Local hospitals were overwhelmed and ill-equipped to care for survivors: one five-bed clinic in eastern Afghanistan, for example, was overwhelmed by 500 injured patients, 200 of whom died later that day. The response to the earthquake itself was characterized by slowness and limited scope, which is at least partly the result of sanctions. While the US military has provided humanitarian support, it would be prohibited from doing so under the House NDAA. While existing aid to Afghanistan is drying up due to inflation and the global focus on Ukraine, the US can do much more.
The policy of withholding funds to save lives cannot be a bargaining chip.
Although the House Rules Committee rejected the “humanitarian waiver” amendment proposed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Senate could include it in its version of the NDAA, which is expected to be voted on after the August recess, and ensure it remains in place through the process reconciliation. Given the unprecedented famine, drought and economic crisis, a blanket ban on aid to Afghanistan is cruel and capricious. The least we can do is a waiver that would allow — but not require — the president to provide humanitarian aid, as is the case with North Korea and Iran.
Perhaps more importantly, the Treasury Department still holds $7 billion in Afghan bank reserves that it seized after the Taliban takeover. Almost a year later, the move has not resulted in a change in Taliban policy, but instead drained the Afghan economy of liquidity, fueling a hunger crisis and collapsing health care. The US and the Taliban have been discussing ways to potentially release some of those reserves, but in light of the recent drone attack on al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, talks have collapsed, leaving Afghans in deadly limbo.
None of this means that the US should legitimize the Taliban or stop encouraging them to form an inclusive government, protect women’s rights and renounce terrorism. But the policy of withholding funds to save lives cannot be a bargaining chip. Who do we really benefit if, as the Center for Economic and Policy Research has noted, US sanctions “may be deadlier than 20 years of war”? Undisguised cruelty is perhaps the greatest weapon of mass destruction.
Despite our disdain for the Taliban’s misrule, we must not blame the victims – the Afghan people – and condemn them to death and despair. They deserve our empathy and support, not our draconian indifference.
Simar Bajaj studies the history of science at Harvard University and is a researcher at Stanford and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Bhav Jain is a 2022 Truman Scholar and Fellow in the Office of the Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission.
Mariam Noorulhuda is the child of political refugees from Afghanistan and a fellow in bioethics at the National Institutes of Health.
Robert D. Crews is a professor of history at Stanford University and editor-in-chief of Afghanistan magazine.
This article expresses the personal views of the above authors.
THE PRESIDENT: Last night in Kabul, the United States ended the 20-year war in Afghanistan – the longest war in American history. We completed one of the largest airlifts in history, evacuating over 120,000 people to safety.
What are the two main causes of humanitarian crises?
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF HUMANITARIAN CRISES On the same subject : Tom Cotton: China shouldn’t be allowed to buy agricultural land in the United States.
- Political unrest. In addition to hunger and death, armed conflicts and civil wars cause refugee crises. …
- Environmental causes. …
- Medical emergencies. …
- Population displacement. …
- Hunger and malnutrition. …
- Lack of basic services.
What is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world? Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with around 23.7 million people in need of aid, including nearly 13 million children. Since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015, the country has become a living hell for the country’s children.
What are the effects of humanitarian crisis?
Humanitarian crises vary greatly in nature and environment, but they will be characterized by the affected population experiencing one or more of the following adverse consequences: direct exposure to violence, witnessing violence, loss of family members, displacement, lack of food, increased exposure to infectious .. .
What are the types of humanitarian crisis?
Examples of humanitarian crises include armed conflicts, epidemics, famines, natural disasters, energy crises and other major emergencies. On the same subject : People highly recommend these 12 underrated travel destinations. If such a crisis causes large movements of people, it can also become a refugee crisis.
What are the causes of humanitarian crisis?
Humanitarian crises can be caused by war, natural disasters, famine and/or disease outbreaks. Humanitarian crises have devastating physical, psychological and social consequences for children. Read also : Suicide prevention training for healthcare providers a first step in long-term effectiveness. From Somalia to Venezuela, conflict, food insecurity and climate change have created a need for humanity’s urgent attention.
What human rights did the Taliban take away?
The Taliban, in power since 1996, have imposed severe restrictions on women, carried out public executions and prevented international aid from entering the country for starving civilians.
How did the Taliban violate human rights in your feed? For example, UNAMA documented Taliban abuse of 163 members of the media in the 10-month period up to 15 June. Among these were 122 cases of arbitrary arrests and detentions, 58 cases of ill-treatment, 33 cases of threats and intimidation, and 12 cases of imprisonment without communication.
What rights have been violated in Afghanistan?
Significant human rights issues included: killings by insurgents; extrajudicial killings by security forces; enforced disappearances by anti-government personnel; reports of torture and instances of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by security forces and anti-government entities; arbitrary detention by the government…
What human rights did the Taliban violate?
A new report by the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released on Wednesday confirms the erosion of basic human rights across the country since the Taliban took power last August, pointing to their responsibility for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions. and violations…
What things are banned in Taliban?
In addition to the above restrictions on women, the Taliban: – Banned listening to music, not only for women, but also for men. – Banned watching movies, TV and video, everyone. – Prohibited celebration of the traditional New Year (Nowroz) on March 21.
Is Afghanistan under Taliban now?
Since taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have been the de facto authority in the country. Despite initial public commitments to respect the rights of women and girls, the Taliban have implemented policies of systematic discrimination that violate their rights.
What is the current situation with Afghanistan? Afghanistan is now facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Afghanistan’s economy has no money to pay salaries or buy food. Western aid has been cut off because the Taliban government is labeled terrorists. Millions of Afghans face acute malnutrition and starvation in the coming months.
Does Afghanistan now belong to Taliban?
The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, twenty years after they were overthrown by US troops. Under their harsh rule, they suppressed women’s rights and neglected basic services.
Is Taliban still there in Afghanistan 2022?
After the fall of Kabul, in which the Islamist Taliban ousted the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan after its 20-year rule, the Taliban promised to adopt a new constitution for Afghanistan. The constitution is expected to be adopted in 2022.
How much aid does the U.S. give Afghanistan?
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that donors contributed $1.67 billion to Afghanistan’s humanitarian aid programs in 2021. The largest amount, over $425 million, was contributed by the United States.
How much aid does Afghanistan receive? This funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Department of State brings total US humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees in the region to nearly $474 million in 2021 alone.
Does the U.S. help Afghanistan?
As many of you know, the United States remains the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Last month, the United States announced a new contribution of $308 million in humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. Since August, we have secured more than $516 million.
How much aid has America given to Afghanistan?
The United States is the largest single donor of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, providing more than $774 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and to Afghans in the region as of mid-August, including more than $573 million from USAID.
