In a Nov. 17 briefing to the UN Security Council, UN Special Representative for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons presented a gripping picture of the “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis facing that nation, and urged the Council not to abandon the Afghan people, who “now feel abandoned, forgotten, and, indeed, punished by circumstances that are not their fault. To abandon the Afghan people now would be a historic mistake—a mistake that has been made before with tragic consequences.” Without glossing over any of the real problems existing in the country, in terms of security, inter-ethnic conflict, internal divisions within the Taliban, the administration of justice, and inequality in treatment of women and girls, Lyons nonetheless made the point that her general impression is that “the Taliban however is making genuine efforts to present itself as a government,” an effort “partly constrained by the lack of resources and capacity, as well as a political ideology.” The Taliban has been extremely useful in continuing to provide security to UN personnel throughout the country, to allow broad humanitarian access, she said.
Nonetheless, the country is now on the brink of a “humanitarian catastrophe that is preventable.” She stressed, “The financial sanctions applied to Afghanistan have paralyzed the banking system, affecting every aspect of the economy.” GDP has contracted by an estimated 40% and cash is severely limited. Traders can’t get letters of credit, and people who have worked and saved for years can’t access their savings, Lyons reported. Food and fuel prices are soaring. In her testimony, Lyons didn’t explicitly call for unfreezing the central bank assets, but in response to a question by Al Jazeera’s reporter James Bays on whether this should be done, she replied, “we’re looking at the money that has already been committed by the donors for the humanitarian work and making sure we have mechanisms in place to have that flowing. Unfreezing assets is something that is a decision by key countries.”
