The US ended its military presence in Afghanistan after two decades in late August 2021 when the Taliban took control of the capital Kabul and toppled the previous government which was backed by Washington.
The US pulled its troops out of Afghanistan in what was branded as a chaotic withdrawal, leaving alone the new rulers with a country devastated by 20 years of war which had already taken a toll on its economy and hindered its development.
But that’s not all. Things have become increasingly ugly for the Afghan people as they are threatened by rising poverty, hunger and famine.
According to figures released by the United Nations, nearly 24 million people in Afghanistan, which makes up about 60 percent of that country's entire population, suffer from acute hunger. Some 8.7 million people are coping with famine, with millions of children suffering from malnutrition.
And on September 9 last year, the UN Development Program issued a report warning that 97 percent of Afghans could plunge into poverty by mid-2022.
The previous Afghan government took nearly 80 percent of its budget from the international community. But the money is now cut off due to sanctions against the Taliban whose government is not yet recognized by many of the countries, including the United States.
The US has frozen assets from Afghanistan’s central bank in America and even ordered other funds held in Swiss banks to remain blocked.
The assets frozen in the US amount to $7 billion. In late February this year, the administration of US President Joe Biden unfreezed part of that money, but to benefit relatives of 9/11 victims.
The move sparked condemnation, with the Afghan people taking to the streets on numerous occasions, calling on the US to return their money.
Human rights organizations have also repeatedly called for unfreezing the frozen Afghan money to avert the collapse of that country’s economy.
Those calls, however, have fallen on deaf ears and the Afghan assets remain frozen despite all the devastating consequences for the ordinary people.
There have been reports over the past weeks of Afghan parents selling kids to feed their families. Some have even sold their kidneys to buy food.
To add to all of these, a crumbling health sector is making things more difficult for the Afghan people as they face diseases, including highly infectious measles, which according to a World Health Organization report on 10th of February this year, “is endemic in Afghanistan”.
The country was already poor and in difficulties before the US-led military conflict ended last August.
American-led foreign forces were there to “rebuild” Afghanistan, spending billions of dollars, but to no avail.
The country, according to the UN, is now fast becoming one of the world’s humanitarian disasters.
Yet, the US keeps Afghanistan’s money frozen, forcing its people into striving to survive.
Such stance by the US have brought many experts to the conclusion that Washington has only changed its policy on Afghanistan to an economic war aimed at taking control of affairs in that country; a policy that is maintained at the cost of the Afghan lives.
A Gallup survey this April said that almost all Afghan people have characterized their lives as “suffering”.
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