Afghans run out of patience amid degrading humanitarian situation: UN Deputy Envoy
Aug 29, 2022
New York [US], August 29 : The people of Afghanistan have run out of patience as the humanitarian situation keeps degrading, UN Deputy Special Representative Ramiz Alakbarov said.
"The country is very poor. The population of this country has exhausted its resources of patience, while the situation keeps deteriorating. For many years they have been witnessing a war, conflicts," Alakbarov said as quoted by Sputnik News Agency.
"People don't have any savings. The banking situation is quite critical. Over the past four years, there have been two consecutive years of droughts," he said.
The hardships prompted some people to sell their organs and even children, the UN official said.
About 19-20 million Afghans are in constant need of humanitarian aid. Around 25 million people are in poverty, up from 20 million in 2016, Alakbarov noted.
Taliban regime in 2021 resulted in a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis. Natural disasters also added to the suffering of the Afghan people.
In June 2022, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, leaving over 1,000 killed and 1,500 others injured.
Seasonal rains in July resulted in massive flooding. A number of humanitarian organizations are assisting Afghans with food, medicines, emergency shelter and other basic items.
Due to heavy rain and flash flooding in Afghanistan, 95 people were killed, hundreds of others injured and swept away thousands of homes in Afghanistan, according to authorities in the crisis-hit country.
The deaths occurred across 10 provinces over the past 10 days, authorities said, as the country reels from an economic and humanitarian crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions imposed after the Taliban returned to power last year, reported CNN.
Afghanistan has recently been hit by a series of natural disasters and extreme weather events, including an earthquake in June that killed more than 1,000 people, reported CNN.
The heavy rains damaged or destroyed around 2,900 houses, a tenfold increase since the last reporting period, and also disrupted livelihoods. Critical civilian infrastructure such as roads and bridges have also been impacted.
