The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that aid agencies will focus on underserved areas in Afghanistan in 2023. OCHA said that these agencies will provide support through unconditional cash assistance and multi-sectoral in-kind packages.
Earlier, OCHA had announced that in 2023, at least 17 million people in Afghanistan will face severe hunger and another six million people will be at the emergency-level of food insecurity.
According to OCHA, during the first few months of 2023, the economic situation in Afghanistan will be dire.
After the Taliban’s recent ban on the work of Afghan women in aid agencies and international organisations, these groups have stressed that aid distribution has become difficult, particularly for women and children in Afghanistan.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, has warned that imposing a political system will contribute to instability in Afghanistan. Shamkhani added that lack of all ethnic groups in the governance of the country will be more challenging.
The Iranian senior security official discussed Afghanistan at the meeting of National Security Advisors of regional countries in Moscow on Wednesday.
Shamkhani stressed that without discussing how to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan, Iran believes that imposing any kind of political system by resorting to foreign intervention or domestic confrontation will only increase instability and insecurity in the country.
Shamkhani referred to the direct impacts of the security situation of Afghanistan on Iran and said that "security, peace, stability and progress in Afghanistan is our main priority”.
The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran explained that the collective efforts of Afghanistan’s neighbours alone cannot be the foundation for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
He added that the will and concrete actions of the Taliban and other Afghan actors inside the country can be the way out from the vicious cycle of instability in the South Asian state.
After taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban formed a caretaker government consisting of its own members and refused the participation of other ethnic and political groups in the government. Since then, all stakeholders have asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government with the presence of all ethnic groups and women of Afghanistan, but the group has so far ignored these calls.
Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, has claimed that weapons left after the US withdrew from Afghanistan might be used in intra-Afghan conflicts and/or be sold to terrorists. Patrushev added that the situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating.
The Russian senior security official was addressing the fifth round of meeting of National Security Advisors of regional countries in Moscow.
Patrushev stressed, “We should not forget about the weapons that the western coalition abandoned during its withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
The Secretary of Security Council of Russia added, "We are talking about more than a thousand armoured vehicles, dozens of helicopters, hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft rockets, as well as hundreds of light and heavy weapons worth tens of billions of dollars."
The US department of defence had announced that after the US withdrawal, Washington left seven billion dollars worth of military equipment in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have taken control of the military equipment and there have been reports of smuggling of these weapons of Pakistan too.
The fifth round of meetings of National Security Advisors of regional countries on Afghanistan started on Wednesday in Moscow. Participants include the National Security Advisors of Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The Taliban representatives have not been invited to the Moscow meeting. Earlier, the spokesperson of the Taliban asked the member countries of the meeting to allow the representative of this group to attend the meeting.
The fifth round of consultations of the Secretaries of the Security Councils comes as the security situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating and has already lead to the closure of the several foreign embassies in Kabul.
It should also be noted that the current meeting of the Heads of the Security Councils of regional states will gather in Moscow after a nine-month break. The previous round of consultations on Afghanistan, which was attended by the Secretaries of the Security Councils of India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, was held on May 27 last year in Dushanbe.
In that meeting, they asked Taliban to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan, a wish that has not yet been fulfilled.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Taliban to release university professor Ismail Mashal, drop any charges against him, and end their campaign of repression against women and girls’ participation in public life.
Mashal, 37, tore up his academic degrees on live TV to register his protest against the Taliban’s ban on Afghan girls from pursuing education.
He was arrested on February 2 after the Taliban accused Mashal of “provocative actions” and creating “chaos” that harms their rule.
The rights organisation, while stating that the Taliban have relentlessly silenced female protesters who peacefully chanted “bread, work, freedom” for all citizens of Afghanistan, said that Mashal’s arrest shows that the Taliban’s unwillingness to tolerate dissent is not limited to women, but extends to anyone who dreams of a rights-respecting and more equal Afghanistan.
In solidarity with his students and thousands of women and girls prevented from exercising their basic rights, Mashal had said, “If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I do not accept this education.” He then shut down the private university he managed, saying, “Education is either offered to all, or no one.” A few weeks later, he built a wooden cart and travelled around Kabul, handing out free books to the public. “It was apparently this peaceful act for which he got detained last Thursday,” HRW stated.
Meanwhile, February 2, 2023, marked 500 days since the Taliban banned Afghan girls from secondary education.
“Mashal’s sense of justice, solidarity, and dissent provided a ray of hope in a country where peaceful protests are often solely championed by women. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, public protests involving Afghan men standing up for women’s rights have been rare. It’s a vital step toward an understanding that all oppression is interconnected and the Taliban’s misogyny is ultimately harmful for all,” HRW emphasised in its statement.
An Afghan journalist, who had fled to Pakistan due to the fear of the Taliban’s reprisal, has announced that he wants to sell his kidney as he is facing economic problems. Sami Jahesh wrote on Twitter, "I'm out of money. We have no bread to eat..I want to sell my kidney."
The Afghan reporter published his photo and a WhatsApp contact number on Twitter and asked those in need of a kidney to contact him.
After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, thousands of Afghan people have migrated to neighbouring countries of Afghanistan. Hundreds of Afghan journalists, human rights activists, and civil society members have also fled the country for fear of Taliban pressures, threats, and restrictions.
Many of these journalists hoped that through the regional countries they should be able to migrate to third countries as asylum seekers. However, many of them still remain in Pakistan and Iran and are struggling with economic problems.
Earlier, several Afghan reporters have held protest gatherings in Pakistan and have asked right groups to support them.