Faced with the threat of growing famine, the Afghans hope for the thaw of international aid

Misery has continued to proliferate in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban regime to power in August 2021. Today, some 23 million people live under the threat of famine in the country. That is 55% of the population, according to the UN. No state has yet recognized the government of the Taliban, fundamentalist Islamists who returned to power in August 2021 after a lightning offensive. Since that date, international aid, which financed approximately 80% of the Afghan budget, has been interrupted. The United States has also frozen 9.5 billion dollars in assets of the Afghan Central Bank, unemployment has exploded and the salaries of civil servants have not been paid for months. In the streets of Kabul, more and more women and children are begging or begging for a piece of bread at the entrance to bakeries. “I only have onions“, says a mother, who fled the advance of the Taliban in August after the death of her husband.

This humanitarian crisis prompted the Taliban to request international assistance. Food began to arrive in Kabul and a UN resolution was passed favoring the distribution of food for a year. The international community, however, is waiting to see how the Islamist fundamentalists govern, having trampled on human rights during their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001. A Taliban delegation is due to talk to Western diplomats in Oslo, Norway, from Monday January 24. These exchanges will focus on humanitarian issues and “do not constitute a legitimation or recognition“ of the Islamist government, according to the Norwegian Foreign Minister.