Appalling report lays bare humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal

Nearly nine in 10 Afghans are hungry and more than 80 percent have lost access to health care since America’s chaotic withdrawal allowed the Taliban to return to power in 2021.

US troops were pulled out of the country in September 2021 after the 20-year conflict, a move that was universally criticized as disastrous. Approval ratings for President Joe Biden fell and never recovered during his time in office.

The withdrawal was accompanied by a terrorist attack that killed thirteen Americans, the fall of the Afghan government and the resurgence of the fundamentalist Taliban, plunging the country into an economic and humanitarian crisis.

All aid given to the country by the US and allies stopped development aid, which covered about 78 percent of the country’s expenditure. This caused the country to fall into financial decline.

A recent study by researchers at Lawrence Technical University in the US found that almost 90 percent of Afghans are hungry, 84 percent have no access to health care and 85 percent are threatened with violence, more than three years after the withdrawal.

In the survey, participants’ comments highlighted limited access to humanitarian aid, restrictions on freedom of expression and women’s rights, widespread malnutrition and significant unemployment rates.

The researchers said: ‘The bleak conditions in the country have deteriorated to such an extent that almost everyone, regardless of their background, appears to be negatively affected.’

They added: ‘The aftermath of the US military withdrawal may have been so profound that structural factors such as gender and age, which once allowed young men to thrive while women and other lower status groups faced greater difficulties seem to have lost their former meaning. .’

The graphs show reduced quality of life, including poverty and loss of access to healthcare, following the resurgence of the Taliban in 2021

President Joe Biden, who was shown announcing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in April 2021, has since been sharply criticized for paving the way for the Taliban's resurgence and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden, who was shown announcing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in April 2021, has since been sharply criticized for paving the way for the Taliban’s resurgence and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

The study involved 800 Afghans. Nearly half were 18 to 29 years old and 94 percent were male.

The survey included multiple-choice questions related to mental and social stress, quality of life and open-ended questions for people to explain their answers.

In addition to the vast majority facing food insecurity, limited or no access to health care, and threats of violence, 72 percent of people say one or more loved ones have been killed or displaced since the U.S. withdrawal.

The researchers said: ‘This research validates many of the concerns raised about the humanitarian crisis on the ground, and provides insight into how political shifts have resulted in socio-economic hardships impacting Afghans who have remained in the country following the US withdrawal in 2021.”

Nearly 90 percent of Afghans suffer from hunger, 84 percent have no access to health care and 85 percent are threatened with violence

Nearly 90 percent of Afghans suffer from hunger, 84 percent have no access to health care and 85 percent are threatened with violence

Eighty-four percent had little contact with family and friends, while 85 percent faced threats of violence. Nearly 72 percent have lost at least one or more family members (killed or displaced) since the American withdrawal.

Eighty-four percent had little contact with family and friends, while 85 percent faced threats of violence. Nearly 72 percent have lost at least one or more family members (killed or displaced) since the American withdrawal.

About nine in ten Afghans have a reduced quality of life linked to high levels of social and psychological stress.

The authors said: ‘Adults often suffer emotional and physical pain caused by disruptions in coping with chronic poverty and violence, especially in conflict.

‘Deteriorated social living conditions cause a feeling of pain, which becomes part of one’s social experience’

Stress levels are also high, with a score of 12.23 out of a possible 21. The main stressors cited were anxiety, hunger and poor sleep, as well as the threat of violence.

Stress levels are also high, with a score of 12.23 out of a possible 21. The main stressors cited were anxiety, hunger and poor sleep, as well as the threat of violence.

One respondent said: ‘The current situation in Afghanistan is disastrous and economically unusual because there are no jobs, all government jobs are taken by the Taliban and the private sector has no absorption capacity.

‘The Taliban are armed in the city. They don’t know if they are thieves or responsible.’

The report was published in the journal PLOS Mental Health.

While the UN estimates that about half of Afghans live in poverty, another report says that 85 percent of Afghans live on less than a dollar a day.

120,000 people were airlifted out, while the rest fell victim to the Taliban's rapid resurgence

120,000 people were airlifted out, while the rest fell victim to the Taliban’s rapid resurgence

US-bound planes were flooded with Afghans who did not qualify as US citizens, nationals of allied countries, and Afghan supporters of allied forces such as interpreters and contractors.

US-bound planes were flooded with Afghans who did not qualify as US citizens, nationals of allied countries, and Afghan supporters of allied forces such as interpreters and contractors

President Biden announced in April 2021 that his administration would end “America’s longest war” by September 11, 2021 – nearly two decades after the terror attacks that plunged the US into war in the first place – after signing a 2020 deal with the group had achieved. .

This promised a complete withdrawal in exchange for commitments to a ceasefire and preventing the country from being used by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda.

By August of that year, the government in Kabul had collapsed. Taliban fighters captured the capital and took over the presidential palace just hours after President Ghani left the country.

But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the deal weakened Afghan forces.

He said: “We did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders made with local leaders in the wake of the Doha Accord, that the Doha Accord itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers, and that we failed to fully understand it. that there was only so much what – and for whom – many Afghan forces would fight.”

Further alienating President Biden from already wary voters, thirteen US service members were killed and at least eighteen injured in an attack on a checkpoint outside Kabul airport where thousands of people were being evacuated.

The United Nations said in 2022 that the ruling Taliban, made up of factions of insurgents and hardliners, has close ties to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, which uses Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as a “friendly environment to raise money, recruit and train.’