They are facing one of the most severe crises in the world

A humanitarian appeal to raise $ 5 billion for 28 million Afghans in their country and the region

  • Martin Griffiths: The events in Afghanistan last year had dire consequences.

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  • Afghanistan's most suffering children.

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported yesterday that the United Nations and its partners have launched joint response plans, aimed at providing vital humanitarian relief to 22 million people in Afghanistan and supporting 5.7 million Afghan refugees and communities in five neighboring countries.

Combined, humanitarian and refugee response plans require more than $5 billion in international funding in 2022. The population of Afghanistan is facing one of the world's fastest-growing humanitarian crises, with half suffering from acute hunger, and more than nine million displaced people. Internally, millions of children are out of school, the basic rights of women and girls are under threat, farmers and herders are grappling with the worst drought in decades, and the economy is in a state of complete collapse. Without the necessary support, tens of thousands of children are at risk of dying from malnutrition, while basic health services have collapsed.

While the conflict has subsided, violence, fear and deprivation continue to drive Afghans to seek safety and asylum across borders, particularly in Iran and Pakistan.

More than 2.2 million registered refugees and four million Afghans of varying statuses have been hosted in neighboring countries, straining the capacity of the communities hosting them, which also need support.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said: “The events in Afghanistan over the past year have unfolded at an astonishing speed, with dire consequences for the Afghan people. A complete humanitarian catastrophe is on the horizon.

He added, "My message is urgent: Do not close the door on the Afghan people."

For his part, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said: “The international community must do everything in its power to prevent a catastrophe in Afghanistan, which will not only exacerbate the suffering, but also trigger further waves of displacement within the country and across the region. Region".

Washington has frozen billions of dollars in Afghanistan's assets while severely hampering aid supplies.

In addition, in 2021 Afghanistan experienced the worst drought in decades.

Without aid, "there will be no future," Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.

Griffiths noted that that amount, if secured, would help aid agencies to ramp up food and agricultural support, provide health services, tackle malnutrition, provide emergency shelters, access water, provide sanitation, protection and education.

It is estimated that 4.7 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, including 1.1 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Without humanitarian aid, Griffiths said, the country would experience hardship, death, starvation and further mass displacement “which robs the Afghan people of hope that they will be able to settle in their country now and in the short term,” but if international donors donate, “Afghanistan will eventually have a chance to enjoy Ending with some kind of security.”

Griffiths added that the security situation for humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan may now be better than it has been for years, pointing out that the employees of ministries in Kabul have not lost their jobs to a large extent after the Taliban took control of the country.

He said the UN Security Council's December move to help deliver aid to desperate Afghans without violating international sanctions aimed at isolating the Taliban made the working environment for donors and humanitarian workers on the ground more comfortable.

The money will go to 160 NGOs as well as UN agencies to provide aid.

Part of the money will be used to pay the salaries of frontline workers such as health workers, but not through the Taliban administration.

And Griffiths explained that about eight million children may interrupt their education because teachers have not received their salaries since August.

For his part, Grandi said that the aim of this aid package is to stabilize the situation inside Afghanistan, especially the internally displaced, and thus prevent large numbers of migrants from escaping across the country's borders.

"It will be difficult to manage the movements of these people in and out of the region if these efforts are not successful, and we will have to ask for $10 billion next year, not five," he added.

• Afghanistan experienced the worst drought in decades in 2021, while Washington froze billions of dollars of its assets, and greatly obstructed aid supplies to it.


• Half of the population of Afghanistan suffers from acute hunger, including more than 9 million displaced people.

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