A catastrophe is looming in Afghanistan. António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), expressed "great concern about the worsening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country". He added that basic services threatened to "collapse" in the Taliban-ruled country. Half of the people currently need help. Around 38 million people currently live in Afghanistan. Three quarters of them cannot read or write. The infrastructure is also on the ground. The country has the lowest Internet penetration in the Asia-Pacific region, with fewer than ten connections per hundred inhabitants. In addition, almost half of women and a third of all men live below the poverty line. "Every third Afghan does not know where their next meal will come from," warned Guterres.
Christoph Hein
Business correspondent for South Asia / Pacific based in Singapore.
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The Taliban's march through, the government's flight and the defeat of the West have exacerbated the nationwide situation.
People lack almost everything.
"Now more than ever, Afghan children, women and men need the support and solidarity of the international community," said Guterres.
He spoke of the "darkest hour of need" in Afghanistan.
The drought and the winter that followed soon threatened to turn into a catastrophe.
More than half of all children under the age of five are likely to be malnourished in the coming year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that under the leadership of the Western coalition, 12.2 million Afghans suffered from food shortages and malnutrition.
It is "of absolutely critical importance" to bring food into the country now.
On Monday, the WHO had flown in 12.5 tons of medical supplies.
But that is only enough for around 200,000 people.
Afghanistan needs "continued aid flights".
Guterres also emphasized that it is important that Kabul international airport remains open even after the Americans have withdrawn in order to enable extensive aid deliveries.
Valuable mineral resources
Nobody trusts the Taliban themselves to master the situation. They remained dependent on enormous help from abroad. “They may have taken power in Afghanistan, but now they are thinking about how to run the country. The Taliban are warriors and have no administrative experience, not to mention a cadre who can run a city the size of Kabul, ”warns Manoj Joshi, a researcher at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. "The big question that a possible Taliban government asks itself is: Who will pay for the import of food and oil, for the salaries of government personnel and for running even a rudimentary administration?"
The neighboring country Pakistan, where large parts of the Taliban have their roots and whose secret services supported and covered the militant troops for decades, is itself dependent on the international community. China and Russia are clearly interested in a stable neighbor. Both have their own geo-economic interests, in which Afghanistan plays a role that should not be underestimated, even under the Taliban leadership. Especially since the Americans estimate that the Afghans are sitting on mineral resources such as iron ore and so-called rare earths worth more than a trillion dollars - but which can only be extracted in peacetime and after many years of preparation.
“America and the Europeans are unlikely to stop helping an Afghanistan under the Taliban.
The problem is not Sharia, because Saudi Arabia is a close ally of America.
The rational calculation would therefore be for the Taliban to moderate their extreme views and receive support from abroad.
But that would be deeply affected by images of the Taliban chopping off hands or preventing women from being educated, ”warns Joshi.
Such images threaten, however, if one takes the development in the capital with its fitness studios or beauty salons, which are now all closed, as a yardstick.
Call of the United Nations
Given this situation, Guterres is currently left with nothing but asking for money. So far, the UN's aid pledge to Afghanistan of only 1.3 billion dollars has only been financed to 39 percent. "I call on you to provide comprehensive resources in a timely and flexible manner," said the UN Secretary-General. By comparison, America has poured $ 144 billion into military aid and reconstruction over the past 19 years. Around a quarter of this went into setting up government institutions, around 15 percent, or around one billion dollars on an annual average, went into humanitarian aid and civil projects. The World Bank has allocated $ 5.3 billion direct to Afghanistan since 2002. Your Reconstruction Fund (ARTF),in which the German taxpayer made almost half of the total payments in the first half of this fiscal year with 116 million dollars, managed a volume of 13 billion dollars.