Obviously there is urgency. Needs are great in the worst-affected Paktika region in southeastern Afghanistan. They are all the more important as the situation was already catastrophic throughout the country even before the earthquake: 24 million people in need (60% of the population), one million children threatened with malnutrition.
But once this observation is made, the pitfalls are multiple. The first is quite simply the lack of local support structures. The Taliban government has few resources, the health system is bloodless. And the NGOs still present in the country have become rare. In addition to the structures of the UN, we can cite the International Rescue Committee, the Red Cross, and smaller NGOs, such as the Italian Emergency or the French Vision du Monde. The Red Cross has announced the immediate dispatch of thousands of blankets, tents and mattresses. One of the priorities is to provide shelter for all those who survived. Iran and Qatar also sent two planes full of aid and materials.
But we are far from a large-scale humanitarian operation at this stage, because there are political blockages due to the nature of the Taliban regime. The Islamist leaders back in power in Kabul, it has now been understood, are just as retrograde and conservative as their elders when they ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, particularly on the issue of girls’ education, still impossible in colleges and high schools. International sanctions are therefore still in place. The regime’s bank assets abroad (between seven and nine billion dollars) are still frozen.
Just like development aid, also at a standstill: several World Bank programs were canceled at the end of March, because of this blockage on the education of girls. Theoretically, emergency humanitarian aid, as in the case of this earthquake, can still be carried out. And one of the Taliban leaders, Anas Haqqani has also asked for help from NGOs. But there are gray areas between emergency aid, which is authorized, and development aid, which is prohibited. So we have to arbitrate on a case-by-case basis and make sure that the emergency funds actually arrive on the ground.
And it’s not just political blockages. There are also some very practical problems to solve. The first is how to transfer the funds. Afghanistan remains cut off from the international banking system. A special trust fund has indeed been created: it provides for the money to pass systematically through UN agencies or NGOs. But most often, at the end of the chain, it is necessary to use cash or the old traditional money transfer system in the country, the hawala, with the risk of seeing part of the sums embezzled by the representatives of the power.
The second challenge is to raise funds. States, like individuals, are very reluctant to give money. Only 13% of the necessary funds were raised last year. Last spring, the United Nations launched the largest appeal for aid for Afghanistan ever for a single country. But the money is hard to come in.