New York, June 21, 2024 – Some 23.7 million Afghans, or half the country’s population, require humanitarian assistance this year and among them are nearly three million children who are experiencing acute levels of hunger, UN officials said in statements to the UN Security Council convened to review the humanitarian situation in the country.
Lisa Doughten, Director of Financing and Partnerships at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the humanitarian needs in Afghanistan is “alarmingly high” and the recent return of more than 618,000 Afghans, 80 per cent of then women and children, from Pakistan has added to the humanitarian need in the country.
“The particularly acute effects of climate change in Afghanistan are deepening the humanitarian crisis,” she said.
Extreme weather events are more frequent and more intense – Both Doughten and Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Special Representative in Afghanistan, said some regions in the country have warmed at twice the global average since 1950 and decreasing rainfall and recurring drought have contributed to a large-scale water crisis.
“Annual droughts are now predicted to be the norm by 2030, and the likelihood of flash flooding has also increased, even when rainfall is not especially heavy,” said Doughten, adding that large number of the population were affected by flooding and mudslides in the northern and western parts of the country, where hundreds of people died and livestock and tens of thousands of acres of agriculture were destroyed.
Otunbayeva said while the country is beset by “massive poverty,” the situation has left Afghans even more vulnerable to many natural disasters as a result of climate change.
“Afghanistan has a near zero carbon footprint but is the sixth most vulnerable country to climate change and the least prepared to address climate shock,” Otunbayeva said.
“Afghanistan remains wholly unprepared to deal with these increasingly persistent threats and will require significant investments in early warning and early response systems,” Doughten said. “Efforts are already underway to establish anticipatory action programmes to trigger support ahead of predicted climate events, but these will need to be sufficiently staffed and funded to bear fruit.”
Afghanistan under the Taliban de-facto authority – Taliban authorities took over the country in August 2021 after the United States pulled out its armed forces. The briefers said no one has felt the takeover’s impact more than Afghan women and girls whose lives have been deeply affected by the Taliban’s decrees that limit their movement and participation in public life. The Taliban has banned girls over the age of 11 from attending schools and universities. It has also applied corporal punishment and public executions of individuals sentenced to the death penalty. The UN has denounced those measures as violations of international human rights standards.
“The ban on girls’ education is fueling an increase in child marriage and early childbearing, with dire physical, emotional, and economic consequences,” Doughten said. “Reports of attempted suicides among women and girls are also increasing. Despite restrictions on their ability to work, as well as the risk to their personal safety, Afghan women continue to participate in the humanitarian response.”
Otunbayeva said the “de facto authorities” in the country have continued to maintain stability, but she has perceived “growing signs of popular discontent, (which) should not hide the fact that as an international community we are still in a crisis management mode.” She said in order to solve the structural problems between the international community and Afghanistan, as identified in the Independent Assessment issued at the end 2023, “all stakeholders need to recommit to the objectives identified in that assessment.”
Shortage of funds affect humanitarian assistance – Otunbayeva said despite the many challenges, 9.9 million people in Afghanistan received at least one form of assistance from January to March 2024. But she said the UN in Afghanistan has received just US 649 million – or 21 per cent of the $3 billion required to meet the huge levels of humanitarian need in the first six months of 2024.
She said the UN has had to close life-saving programs due to the lack of funds, including 150 mobile health and nutrition teams. She said a further 40 teams are at imminent risk, potentially depriving 700,000 children under five of vital nutrition treatment services for severe acute malnutrition. The lack of funds is also imperiling the last two mine clearance and a mine victims’ assistance program in Afghanistan. These programs will cease in the coming month if additional funds are not received. This is at a time when 3.4 million people live within 1 km of explosive ordinance contamination, including 475 schools and 230 healthcare facilities.
“Afghans continue to feel the compounding impacts of climate change, poverty and oppression,” said Doughten. “Millions of people depend on humanitarian assistance for their everyday survival. We urge donors to fully fund the appeal for Afghanistan so we can continue to provide this life-saving support. But there is a risk of a slide into even greater hardship. We must also find ways to support the Afghan people with longer-term solutions to help lift them out of poverty and withstand a deepening set of climate-related shocks. Nothing is easy in Afghanistan, but with sustained assistance, we can support people in the realization of a life with peace, stability and hope.” (By J. Tuyet Nguyen)
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