The return of more than four million Afghan migrants from Iran and Pakistan since 2023 has intensified Afghanistan’s economic crisis, worsening unemployment, displacement, and humanitarian pressures.
Since September 2023, more than four million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan, including nearly 1.5 million in the current year alone.
According to Al Jazeera on Thursday, September 18, the sudden influx has placed enormous pressure on Afghanistan’s fragile economy, already weakened by years of conflict, isolation, and shrinking international aid.
The World Bank warned that the surge in returnees has worsened unemployment and could push Afghanistan into a deeper jobs crisis. By 2030, over one million additional young people are expected to enter the labor market, intensifying the strain.
The Bank cautioned that without urgent investment in education, vocational training, entrepreneurship, and job creation, many returnees may once again be forced to migrate abroad in search of survival.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) added that beyond cross-border returns, 350,000 Afghans were newly displaced in just the first four months of this year due to climate shocks, border closures, and internal insecurity.
Analysts say the mass return has become one of Afghanistan’s greatest humanitarian and economic challenges since 2021, reshaping demographics and overwhelming already stretched infrastructure and social services.
Aid agencies warn that unless international donors and regional partners step in with sustained support, Afghanistan could face spiraling poverty, renewed displacement, and long-term instability affecting millions of families.
Return of Over Four Million Migrants Deepens Afghanistan’s Economic Crisis
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
The first Trump administration negotiated an American withdrawal from the country by 2021 and didn’t mention keeping the base.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. is trying to reclaim the Afghanistan airbase that American troops abandoned in 2021 during their withdrawal from the country.
Trump has repeatedly attacked former President Joe Biden for handing over Bagram Airfield, the largest American military base in the country and a logistics hub for the 20-year international war effort there.
“We’re trying to get it back,” he said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, adding that it’s “about an hour away from where China is developing its nuclear weapons.”
Trump did not elaborate as to whether his administration was speaking with the Taliban or how reclaiming the base tied into the Chinese nuclear program.
The U.S. in 2021 unceremoniously handed over Bagram — the hub of its post-9/11 war effort to oust the Taliban and target al-Qaeda — to Afghan forces. It was the most visible step to that point in the U.S. military withdrawal.
Trump has said repeatedly that he would never have given up Bagram.
Biden “went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever. Trump said on Thursday. “We were going to leave Afghanistan but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity. We were going to keep Bagram, the big air base — one of the biggest air bases, we gave it to them for nothing.”
But the deal the first Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban in February 2020 paved the way for America’s departure and did not mention the base. It established a ceasefire between U.S. and Taliban forces pending a full withdrawal of American troops in 14 months. The U.S. also committed the Afghan government to release 5,000 imprisoned Taliban fighters.
Bagram was built by the Soviets in the 1950s and served as a main base during their own decadelong war. Bagram, at its peak as a U.S. base., hosted more than 100,000 troops and included extensive infrastructure, from long runways to a 50-bed hospital and prison.
Trump made the deadly U.S. withdrawal under Biden a topic of his reelection bid. He brought the families of 13 Marines killed at the Abbey Gate suicide bombing near Kabul airport in August 2021 to the Republican convention last year.
The ISIS-led bombing also killed 170 Afghan civilians gathered to try and get on the last U.S. cargo planes ferrying people out of the capital.
When Shahnaz went into labour, her husband Abdul called a taxi to take them to the only medical facility accessible to them.
“She was in a lot pain,” he says.
A 20-minute drive away, the clinic was in Shesh Pol village in Afghanistan’s north-eastern Badakhshan province. It was where their two older children were born.
Abdul sat next to Shahnaz comforting her as they drove over gravel tracks to reach help.
“But when we reached the clinic, we saw that it was closed. I didn’t know it had shut down,” he said, his face crumpling with agony.
The clinic in Shesh Pol is one of more than 400 medical facilities that closed down in Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, after the Trump administration cut nearly all US aid to the country earlier this year, in a drastic and abrupt move following the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
A single-storey structure with four small rooms, white paint peeling off its walls, the Shesh Pol clinic has USAID posters tacked up everywhere with information and guidance for pregnant women and new mothers.
It doesn’t look like much but in Badakhshan’s mountainous, unforgiving terrain, where a lack of access has been a major reason for historically high maternal mortality rates, the clinic was a critical lifeline, part of a wider programme implemented during the tenure of the US-backed government in the country, to reduce maternal and newborn deaths.
It had a trained midwife who assisted around 25-30 deliveries every month. It had a stock of medicines and injections, and it also provided basic healthcare services.
Other medical facilities are simply too far from Abdul’s village, and it was not without risk for Shahnaz to travel on bumpy roads. Abdul also didn’t have money to pay for a longer journey – renting the taxi cost 1,000 Afghani ($14.65; £12.70), roughly a quarter of his monthly income as a labourer. So they decided to return home.
“But the baby was coming and we had to stop by the side of the road,” Abdul said.
Shahnaz delivered their baby girl in the car. Shortly after, she died, bleeding profusely. A few hours later, before she could be named, their baby also died.
“I wept and screamed. My wife and child could’ve been saved if the clinic was open,” said Abdul. “We had a hard life, but we were living it together. I was always happy when I was with her.”
He doesn’t even have a photo of Shahnaz to hold on to.
There’s no certainty the mother and baby would’ve survived if they’d been treated at the clinic, but without it, they didn’t stand a chance, underlining the undeniable impact of US aid cuts in Afghanistan.
For decades, America has been the largest donor to Afghanistan, and in 2024, US funds made up a staggering 43% of all aid coming into the country.
The Trump administration has justified withdrawing it, saying there were “credible and longstanding concerns that funding was benefiting terrorist groups, including… the Taliban”, who govern the country. The US government further added that they had reports stating that at least $11m were “being siphoned or enriching the Taliban”.
The Taliban government denies that aid money was going into their hands.
“This allegation is not true. The aid is given to the UN, and through them to NGOs in provinces. They identify who needs the aid, and they distribute it themselves. The government is not involved,” said Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha.
The Taliban government’s policies, especially its restrictions on women, the harshest in the world, have meant that after four years in power, it is still not recognised by most of the world. It’s also a key reason donors have been increasingly walking away from the country.
The US insists no one has died because of aid cuts. Shahnaz and her baby’s deaths are not recorded anywhere. Neither are countless others.
The BBC has documented at least half a dozen first-hand, devastating accounts in areas where USAID-supported clinics have shut down.
Right next to Shahnaz’s grave, villagers who had gathered around us pointed to two other graves. They told us both were of women who died in childbirth in the past four months – Daulat Begi and Javhar. Their babies survived.
Not far from the graveyard, we met Khan Mohammad whose wife, 36-year-old Gul Jan, died in childbirth five months ago. Their baby boy Safiullah died three days later.
“When she became pregnant, she would go to the clinic for check-ups. But midway through her pregnancy it shut down. During the delivery she had a lot of pain and blood loss,” Khan Mohammad said. “My children are sad all the time. No one can give them the love of a mother. I miss her every day. We had a sweet and loving life together.”
A roughly five-hour drive from Shesh Pol, inCawgani, another village where a USAID-backed clinic closed down, Ahmad Khan, the grief-stricken father of Maidamo showed us the room in their mud and clay home where she died giving birth to baby Karima.
“If the clinic had been open, she might have survived. And even if she had died, we would not have had regrets knowing the medics tried their best. Now we’re left with regret and pain. America did this to us,” he said, tears rolling down his face.
In another home a few lanes away, Bahisa tells us how terrifying it was to give birth at home. Her three other children were born in the Cawgani clinic.
“I was so scared. In the clinic, we had a midwife, medicines and injections. At home I had nothing, no painkillers. It was unbearable pain. I felt like life was leaving my body. I became numb,” she said.
The closure of clinics in villages has resulted in a surge of patients at the maternity ward of the main regional hospital in the provincial capital Faizabad.
Getting to it, through Badakhshan’s treacherous landscape is risky. We were shown a horrifying photo of a newborn baby, who was delivered on the way to Faizabad, and whose neck snapped before he got to the hospital.
We had visited the hospital back in 2022, and while it was stretched then, the scenes we saw this time were unprecedented.
In each bed, there were three women. Imagine having gone into labour, or just having gone through a miscarriage, and not even having a bed to yourself to lie in.
It’s what Zuhra Shewan, who suffered a miscarriage, had to endure.
“I was bleeding severely and didn’t even have a place to sit. It was really hard. By the time a bed is free, a woman could die bleeding,” she said.
Dr Shafiq Hamdard, the director of the hospital, said: “We have 120 beds in the hospital. Now we’ve admitted 300 to 305.”
While the patient load is swelling, the hospital, too, has faced sharp cuts in its funding.
“Three years ago our annual budget was $80,000. Now we have $25,000,” Dr Hamdard said.
By August this year, there had been as many maternal deaths recorded as there were for the whole of last year. Which means that at this rate, maternal mortality could increase by as much as 50% over last year.
Newborn deaths have already increased by roughly a third in the past four months, compared with the start of the year.
Razia Hanifi, the hospital’s head midwife, says she’s exhausted. “I have been working for the past 20 years. This year is the toughest, because of the overcrowding, the shortage of resources and the shortage of trained staff,” she said.
But no reinforcements are coming because of the Taliban government’s restrictions on women. Three years ago, all higher education, including medical education was banned for women. Less than a year ago, in December 2024, training for midwives and female nurses was also banned.
At a discreet location, we met two female students who were midway through the training when it was closed. They didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisal.
Anya (name changed) said they both were in graduate courses at university when the Taliban took over. When those were closed in December 2022, they began midwife and nursing training, as it was the only path left to getting an education and a job.
“When that was also banned, I became depressed. I was crying day and night, and I wasn’t able to eat. It’s a painful situation,” she said.
Karishma (named changed) said: “There is already a shortage of midwives and nurses in Afghanistan. Without more being trained, women will be forced to give birth at home which will put them at risk.”
We asked the Taliban government’s Suhail Shaheen how they can justify bans which effectively curb access to health for half the population.
“It is our internal issue. These are our issues, how to handle them, how to consider them, how to take decisions, this is something internal. That is up to the leadership. Based on the needs of the society, they will take a decision,” he said.
With their access to medical services severely restricted, by wave after wave of crushing blows, for Afghanistan’s women, their right to health, and life itself, is at grave risk.
UNICEF warned that restrictions on girls’ education in Afghanistan are fueling rising mental health problems and early marriages, urging authorities to lift the ban immediately.
Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s Executive Director, has raised alarm over worsening mental health challenges and rising early marriages among Afghan girls barred from education for nearly four years.
In a statement on Wednesday, September 17, UNICEF said millions of girls remain affected by the Taliban’s restrictions. By the end of 2025, more than 2.2 million adolescent girls will be excluded from schooling.
Russell noted that the return of over 2 million Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan this year has further increased the number of girls unable to attend school.
She warned that Afghan girls are being deprived not only of academic lessons but also of social interaction, personal growth, and opportunities to shape their future.
“While millions of children worldwide return to classrooms for the new academic year, Afghan girls are denied this basic right,” Russell said, calling it one of the defining injustices of our time.
UNICEF emphasized that the ban threatens Afghanistan’s long-term stability and progress, as no country can prosper when half its population is excluded from contributing to the workforce and national development.
The agency also highlighted the aftermath of Afghanistan’s devastating earthquake, which killed more than 1,100 children, as evidence of the critical need for trained female health and social workers in a segregated society.
UNICEF said many girls confined to their homes are increasingly facing mental health problems, child marriage, and early pregnancies — all consequences that are entirely preventable.
The organization urged Taliban administration to lift restrictions without delay and guarantee every girl access to education at all levels, from primary school to higher education.
UNICEF Calls for End to Restrictions as Mental Health Issues, Child Marriages Rise in Afghanistan
Former U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad slammed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s violent legacy, labeling him the “Butcher of Kabul,” citing wartime atrocities, failed political ambitions, and foreign ties.
Former U.S. envoy for Afghanistan peace Zalmay Khalilzad sharply criticized Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on Wednesday, Septermber 7, in a post on X, reigniting debate over the warlord’s violent past and political ambitions.
Khalilzad’s remarks resurfaced accusations that Hekmatyar, known as the “butcher of Kabul,” was responsible for acid attacks on female students, kidnappings in Peshawar, and the devastating shelling of Kabul during the 1990s civil war.
He further claimed that Hekmatyar recently sought a side deal with Taliban deputy leader Mullah Baradar in Moscow but was rejected as “too corrupt” and “a traitor to his people.”
The former envoy also suggested that Hekmatyar has long relied on Pakistan’s ISI and Iran’s Quds Force to sustain influence, arguing that such ties undermine his credibility among Afghans.
“Hekmatyar, the butcher of Kabul, who used to throw acid into the faces of female students in Kabul, infamous in Peshawar for assassinating or kidnapping members of other resistance groups, a person who participated in the bloody civil war following the Soviet withdrawal, throwing bombs on his own city, destroying entire neighborhoods and killing hundreds — now trying to reinvent himself as a political and moral authority, Khalilzad stated.”
Zalmay Khalilzad is often blamed for the flawed Doha deal that paved the way for the Taliban’s return. Critics accuse him of lobbying for the Taliban internationally while overlooking their repression and now denouncing Hekmatyar as the “Butcher of Kabul.” Observers argue that his shifting alliances and past ties to both groups reflect a pattern of political opportunism and dirty bargaining rather than genuine concern for Afghanistan’s people.
Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-e Islami, played a major role in Afghanistan’s conflicts following the Soviet withdrawal, with his forces blamed for heavy civilian casualties. Khalilzad’s intervention underscores how Afghanistan’s unresolved past still shapes today’s politics, leaving figures like Hekmatyar struggling for legitimacy amid widespread public distrust.
Despite his attempts to reinvent himself, Hekmatyar has also become an outspoken critic of the Taliban regime, frequently condemning its harsh restrictions, internal corruption, and failure to provide basic governance. His speeches highlight divisions among former mujahideen leaders and the Taliban rulers now in power.
Observers note that while Hekmatyar continues to seek a political role, public memory of his wartime record continues to overshadow his efforts to rebrand as a statesman. Critics argue that his own history of authoritarianism and bloodshed makes his criticism of today’s rulers ring hollow.
Khalilzad Slams Hekmatyar’s Legacy, Labels Him ‘Butcher of Kabul’
In another part of his remarks, Fletcher expressed concern over the ban on female staff working with UN-affiliated agencies in Afghanistan.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that budget reductions have inflicted the greatest impact on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator announced in a press briefing that the organization’s humanitarian funding has dropped by 40% compared to last year.
Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian coordinator, stated: “It’s one of the crises, alongside DRC and Afghanistan, where the funding cuts are hitting hardest – less than 12 per cent of what we need. Afghanistan I’ve discussed here before. You know the challenges. I think I visited since I last joined you and went to Kandahar, Kunduz, Kabul. Of course, the recent earthquakes have then devastated nearly half a million people, claiming thousands of lives. Many homes destroyed, livelihoods decimated.”
In another part of his remarks, Fletcher expressed concern over the ban on female staff working with UN-affiliated agencies in Afghanistan.
He emphasized that the presence of female aid workers is vital to the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the country and said that pressure on them is unacceptable.
He added: “Our female humanitarian workers and the women that we’re working with in country are absolutely indispensable to the humanitarian response in Afghanistan, and it is intolerable that they’re coming under further pressure, further challenges in the work they are doing. We cannot do our work without them.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy stated that the reduction in the budgets of international organizations has negatively impacted their activities in Afghanistan and stressed the importance of continuing such aid.
Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy, said: “Removing restrictions by the UN and the international community, continuing emergency and humanitarian assistance, and expanding development cooperation that creates employment opportunities play a crucial role in stimulating the economy and alleviating livelihood challenges.”
Some citizens also shared differing opinions about the UN’s humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Khan Zaman, a resident of Kabul, said: “These funds mostly go to the UN’s own offices. The poor don’t receive much of this aid. There are no jobs either.”
The UN’s warning about the negative consequences of humanitarian budget cuts comes at a time when forced deportations of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan are intensifying, and natural disasters over the past year have further worsened Afghanistan’s economic and humanitarian crisis.
UN Warns Budget Cuts Are Deepening Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis
Afghan government workers in Balkh province appeared to have been taken by surprise by the WiFi ban.
The Taliban have stopped fiber-optic internet services in a northern Afghanistan province, an official said Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of Afghans without internet access and making it more difficult to communicate, attend online classes, and receive or send news.
WiFi in Afghanistan’s Balkh province was blocked “for the prevention of vices,” Attaullah Zaid, a spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Balkh, said in a statement posted on X.
“From now on, there will be no internet access through this cable and all connections have been cut off,” Zaid said. Mobile internet, which is not always accessible in some areas, appeared to be unaffected.
Afghans have also reported connectivity issues in Kandahar and Herat provinces, according to local news reports.
The Taliban, who rule Afghanistan under their strict interpretation of Islamic religious law, did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the policy.
The WiFi ban appeared to take Afghan government workers in Balkh province by surprise, said one local employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists. He and other government workers were still able to communicate via mobile internet, he said, but he was worried about unconfirmed reports that the ban could be extended to other provinces.
An internet shutdown could pose major challenges for ongoing efforts to provide education to Afghan women and girls.
For many Afghan women, the internet has been an escape amid increasingly draconian restrictions following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.
The Taliban have banned women from education above sixth grade and have placed restrictions on their freedom of movement, among many other rules.
In response, many women have attended online classes, learned foreign languages with the help of e-books and traded cryptocurrencies in the hope of becoming financially independent. Some have tried to make up for the closing of movie theaters, the shuttering of gyms for women and the banning of music by turning to YouTube videos.
Foreign nongovernmental organizations have subsidized mobile data packages for Afghan students, which appear to be unaffected by the internet ban Tuesday.
Roughly a quarter of Afghan girls and women who attend online classes provided through Afghan Female Student Outreach, a volunteer nonprofit, have been affected by the internet shutdown — some 200 out of about 800, said Lucy Ferriss, president of the organization’s board.
“We were in the process of supplying computers and wireless internet to the students who are enrolled in these credit-bearing American-originated classes, and I have absolutely no idea right now how they can possibly continue as full-time college students with no connection from Afghanistan,” Ferriss said, adding that the surge of people turning to internet via cellular networks had apparently slowed those connections “enormously.”
A student in the organization’s college preparatory program, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, said she has been unable to upload assignments or participate in classes. The student, who said she was in her second year of medical school before the Taliban regained power, is scheduled to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, next month, an admissions requirement for universities abroad. But the TOEFL testing centers have also lost connectivity, the student said, making it impossible for her to take the exam.
“I’m really frustrated,” she said. “How am I supposed to join my classes?”
There were early signs that the Taliban were seeking tighter control of the Afghan internet. In interviews last year, Afghan YouTubers recalled tightening censorship and increasing restrictions.
“Of course we want filters that reflect our Islamic values, but it’s expensive — and right now money is tight,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief government spokesman, told The Washington Post last year. He added that the regime wants to stop users from “wasting their time.”
Meanwhile, the Taliban regime has begun to enforce new rules under which anyone who buys a SIM card for a cellphone can no longer remain anonymous and must provide an identity card.
The internet shutdown could be connected to lingering competition for power between the hard-line Taliban leadership in Kandahar and the regime’s more pragmatic officials who are tasked with running the country on a day-to-day basis from Kabul.
Kandahar’s push for strict rules has repeatedly resulted in crackdowns, including one last year on photos or videos showing “living beings.” But Taliban officials in many provinces have often ignored these rules, feeding a widespread assumption among many Afghans and international observers that the regime remains divided internally.
But for who rely on the internet for work or education, a ban at the provincial level could have drastic impact, even if other Taliban factions oppose it.
“Things have been getting more difficult ever since we began, and this ratchets the difficulty up a hundredfold because the delivery of education at this point is through the internet,” Ferriss said. “If we cannot deliver the education through the internet, we will do everything we can to find ways to continue to educate women, but it certainly sets the bar pretty high for our efforts.”
Haq Nawaz Khan contributed to this report.
Taliban shut down WiFi, a lifeline for women and girls, in Afghan province
Pakistani media reported that officials in Islamabad have hinted at widening air operations deeper into Afghanistan territory if militant attacks continue, heightening fears of escalation.
Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have sunk to a new low, with Islamabad voicing alarm over Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants operating from Afghanistan soil.
According to Dawn, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told Kabul to “choose between Pakistan and the TTP,” warning that Islamabad would not accept further cross-border attacks from Afghanistan.
The statement followed Taliban allegations that Pakistani airstrikes in Nangarhar and Khost killed civilians. Islamabad rejected the claims, describing them as an effort to conceal Afghanistan’s own security failings.
Since the Taliban’s return to power four years ago, Pakistan has faced a sharp surge in TTP violence. Despite repeated calls, Kabul has failed to disarm or detain TTP leaders sheltering on its territory.
Dawn reported that Islamabad has grown increasingly frustrated after a year of diplomatic outreach, including high-level visits to Kabul, yielded no meaningful action from Kabul administration.
Pakistan has already carried out cross-border strikes against TTP hideouts, tightened restrictions on Afghan transit trade, and accelerated deportations of undocumented Afghan migrants. These steps underline what Dawn described as Islamabad’s “harder line” toward Kabul.
The newspaper also noted that officials in Islamabad have hinted at expanding the scope of air operations deeper into Afghanistan territory if militant attacks persist, raising fears of further escalation.
Analysts say the current tensions represent a “new low” in bilateral relations, with security concerns overshadowing trade and diplomatic ties between the two neighbors.
While dialogue channels remain formally open, mistrust is growing. Commentators warn that without tangible action from Kabul, Pakistan may be forced to escalate militarily, further straining an already fragile relationship.
Pakistan–Afghanistan Ties Hit New Low as Islamabad Warns Kabul Over TTP, Says Dawn
The United Nations reported more than three million people in Afghanistan are displaced by conflict and instability, warning urgent international aid is needed to address the humanitarian emergency.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that Afghanistan is grappling with a deepening humanitarian and displacement crisis, with millions forced from their homes.
More than three million people inside Afghanistan have been displaced by recent conflict and instability, leaving families facing an uncertain future, the agency said in its latest update.
UNHCR noted that financial support remains critical, stressing that funding could provide life-saving assistance and emergency protection for internally displaced Afghans who lack shelter, food, and basic services.
The agency added that only about one percent of its operational budget for Afghanistan is currently covered through UN allocations, underscoring a severe funding gap.
Calling on donor governments and international partners, UNHCR urged the global community to deliver immediate humanitarian aid to support Afghanistan’s most vulnerable populations, including women and children.
Aid workers warn that without urgent resources, millions could be pushed deeper into poverty, hunger, and displacement ahead of the winter months.
Humanitarian observers say Afghanistan’s crisis highlights the consequences of under-funding, adding pressure on the international community to prevent a worsening emergency in a country already struggling with instability.
UN Says Over Three Million in Afghanistan Face Displacement and Humanitarian Crisis
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
