Afghans Who Were Forgotten

             When the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, it was clear that there was little hope that Washington and its European allies would still be interested in providing aid to the impoverished nation, especially since it had been seized by an adversary they had fought for two decades. Despite claims that famine and poverty were causing parents to sell their kids or that men were buying and selling their kidneys to feed their loved ones, warnings from the UN and other assistance organizations of a humanitarian catastrophe went largely unheeded. Despite pledges, very little aid—certainly not enough to feed hungry infants or prevent hunger—arrived.

 

The Afghan Taliban had to agree to the world demand for a broadly inclusive administration, women's education, and respect for human rights before receiving aid. There was little chance of assistance given the Taliban's obstinacy, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine seemed to have completely diverted attention away from Afghanistan. There is no disputing that as the situation in Ukraine becomes increasingly deadly and dire, war clouds continue to loom over Europe. This indicates that the Taliban rulers ignored the key demand of the international community to reopen public colleges in the first week of last month, allowing students to resume their studies after a six-month break. Late in February, the Biden administration eased some of the sanctions that had caused the Afghan economy to collapse and the banking system to become irreparably damaged, but the actions did little to reverse America's earlier action of seizing half of the frozen $7 billion in Afghan assets and allocating the remaining funds for humanitarian aid. Afghanistan's predicament is still grave. To pay the salaries of the teachers and medical staff, it needs food, medical supplies, and money. The amount of humanitarian aid provided so far is significantly less than what the country needs. Less than $29 million of the $4.4 billion required to save Afghanistan from disaster, according to the UN's Financial Tracking Service, has been received so far.

 

Refugees are a further aspect of the Russian-Ukrainian war that could harm Afghanistan. Millions of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan will now receive little to no attention since more than a million Ukrainian refugees have fled the violence in their nation and sought sanctuary in Europe. For the Afghan refugees, who are now largely dependent on Pakistan, which has its own set of economic issues, there was already donor fatigue. This will become more apparent in the future. They couldn't be taken in by Afghanistan because of its own collapsed economy, and Pakistan could struggle to care for them given its limited resources. Sadly, it appears that Afghanistan has been forgotten about in light of the new battle that is brewing in the heart of Europe.