Xinhua News Agency, Kabul, August 15th Newsletter: The reconstruction of Afghanistan is difficult, and the United States is to blame
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zou Xuemian
As the sun sets, the streets of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, are sparsely populated, but 11-year-old Yas is still shouting down the street for ice cream that is about to melt from a cart.
Given the current security situation in Kabul, he had to get home before the sun went down, but the income that day made it difficult for him to face his starving sister at home.
"I like going to school, not selling ice cream on the street," said Yas, who was supposed to attend school.
Since last month, he and his brother have had to drop out of school and start a street hawking life in order to make ends meet.
But the average daily income of less than 60 Afghanis (about 4.5 yuan) is a drop in the bucket in the face of soaring prices.
The Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan on August 15 last year, cleaning up the mess left by the US military.
Over the past year, Afghanistan, which is looking forward to post-war reconstruction, has faced multiple challenges such as intensified humanitarian crisis, continued economic depression, and frequent terrorist attacks.
The United States, which hastily withdrawn troops from Afghanistan in August last year, is to blame for this.
According to local media reports, the number of beggars on the streets of Kabul is "increasing every day".
Due to poverty, some 3 million Afghan children are forced to drop out of school to earn money to support their families.
According to a report released by the United Nations in May this year, nearly 20 million Afghans face severe famine.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner has said that by mid-2022, an estimated 97 percent of Afghans could be living in poverty.
Factors such as infrastructure, power supply, serious shortage of professional talents, and weak economic foundation have made Afghanistan's economic development weak, which is a more severe challenge facing the Afghan interim government.
In Khost Province, eastern Afghanistan, local farmer Mohammad Hassan Khan owns about 4 hectares of land, but suffers from the lack of irrigation canals, making life unsustainable, so he has to rely on helping others carry heavy things in the city to make a living .
In Afghanistan's central Bamiyan province, farmer Turiali told reporters: "The fertilizers used in farming are all imported, and the prices are unbearably high."
Rishtia, chairman of the Afghanistan Steel Industry Association, said that 5,000 large and small steel mills in Afghanistan are facing a shortage of skilled personnel.
The three major sectors of the Afghan economy, mining, agriculture and industry, all have weak foundations.
Despite the difficulties of Afghanistan's reconstruction, US President Biden signed an executive order on February 11 this year, planning to use half of the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan in the United States of about 7 billion to compensate the victims of the "9.11" terrorist attack.
Afghan public opinion generally believes that the US government's looting has led to a shortage of foreign exchange in Afghanistan and rising prices, making life worse for the Afghan people.
"In the past 20 years, the United States has not brought any development to Afghanistan, and now it has imposed sanctions on us when Afghanistan is at its most difficult." Najibullah Jami, a scholar at Kabul University in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the US sanctions It is the main reason why Afghanistan is currently in a humanitarian crisis.
In terms of security, terrorist attacks by extremist groups such as the "Islamic State" occur frequently.
In Kabul alone, there is an average of one bombing attack in two to three days.
Analysts believe that although the Afghan interim government has generally achieved national stability, it is very difficult to eradicate extremist and terrorist organizations.
During the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the United States selectively countered terrorism in order to achieve its own geopolitical goals, which led to an increase in the number of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan from single digits 20 years ago to more than 20 today, which has not only made the Afghan people deeply suffer and endanger the security of neighboring countries.
"As long as its own interests require it, the United States can add or remove any organization from the list of terrorist organizations." Abzal Haparwa Zazai, a professor at Kabul University, believes that what the United States does out of its own interests leaves the Afghan people behind Difficult to get out of.