Whatever horrible images people remember from the hectic pullout of American forces last August, a much more horrible reality has come into focus — that retribution would be exacted upon the Afghan population, regardless of any political leanings. Beyond the miscalculation of Western intelligence agencies regarding the degree of support for the propped-up government, there is the current calculation of deaths from the cold, from disease and from starvation.
The reality is that, at a minimum, 55% of the population is at “extreme levels of hunger,” according to the latest UN estimate. And of these 23 million people, around 9 million are at immediate risk of famine. The depraved indifference that has allowed matters to come to this point competes with the deliberate depravity of withholding Afghanistan’s $9 billion in reserve assets, adding up to genocide – deaths unmatched in years of bombing.
Presently, displaced Afghans in camps in the northern region are reduced to selling not only their children, but also their kidneys to survive. According to TOLOnews, one gets $950-1,425 per child, and $1,425-1,900 per kidney. The head of Action Against Hunger’s Afghanistan section, Mike Bonke, reported on NPR that they witness people losing body weight and “a sense of listlessness” from the lack of calories. Speaking from his office in Kabul, he said, “We actually go to the people in villages and check on their health status. And we see people in these villages who have been, you know, skipping over meals. We find cases of severe malnourishment, you know, underfed children that are – really are starving. And that’s horrifying.”
