generalspeaking

Thursday, March 21, 2019

With Little Hope In Sight, Afghanistan

"She [his baby girl] was born in such circumstances that I don't wish upon any human."
"I was lost [in despair over his children's safety and the decision to leave his property]. I didn't know whether to stay with my suffering wife, or to take these other children to a safer place."
"I have no prejudice against anyone -- not with the Taliban, not with the government. I would be happy if they made their peace, if they declared their ceasefire."
"All we want is our houses to be freed again so we could return."
Sayed Mohammed, Afghan farmer, father of five, Tirin Kot, Afghanistan

"People rightly feel so marginalized that they become angry -- that fuels conflict."
"Countries that have been involved in waging war must not turn their backs on the civilians who have borne the brunt of 40 years of violence."
Jan Egeland, secretary-general, Norwegian Refugee Council

"In the past, it would be clear where the fighting would happen. Now, the lines are not clear. It could happen anywhere."
"I don't even know how many times we have moved houses over the past five months that we got here."
Mohammed Salem, migrant from Helmand Province

An Afghan boy stands near a public water pump in Kabul January 13, 2010. Nearly half way through the Afghan winter, unusually warm and dry weather is raising fears of a drought that could cause food shortages, undermine efforts to slash poppy growing and worsen security problems. Picture taken January 13, 2010. To match analysis AFGHANISTAN-DROUGHT/ REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: ENVIRONMENT DISASTER IMAGES OF THE DAY) - GM1E61E16CY01

This year, 275,000 people have been displaced by water shortages.

Image: REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (AFGHANISTAN

Continual government raids, bombings against the Taliban, and Taliban land mines continue to place civilian lives at risk in Afghanistan. According to the United Nations, roughly one and a half million Afghans have become internally displaced. Mostly as a result of the never-ending conflict between the Taliban and the government military and police. The recent drought has had a similar effect; forcing people to leave their parched environment hoping for better luck elsewhere. So families move again and again.

A fifth child born to Sayed Mohammed and his wife simply made the burden on two people that much more difficult. A raging battle had ensued and that's when little Halima was born; explosives shaking the family farmhouse located on the outskirts of the city of tirin Kot with blasts so intense four-year-old Saber bit his lips so compulsively blisters ensued as the terrified child tried to find comfort inside his father's shirt.

Not long afterward the couple saw no other option for them but to leave, and leave they did taking with them just what they could manage to carry. Now they rent a dark, cold room about a ten-minute walk from the family farm, unable to remain there, with their neighbourhood become a raging battlefield. On the farm they have 4,500 chickens. A loan had enabled him to stock the farm.

The gains of past years since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power and with them al-Qaeda, stand to be reversed should the Taliban return to government after the 17-year war. At the present time, the U.S. is negotiating with the Taliban to end the war. Even while the Taliban refuses to include the Afghan government in the negotiations. Women's right to an education, to work, to lead a normal life is threatened.

Half the country is exposed to the violence of the conflict between the two, Taliban and government, depriving rural Afghans of peace and security, of improvements that the peace negotiations are meant to settle. At the same time displacement by conflict is exacerbated by a drought leaving 13.5 million people surviving on one meal daily with 54 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

According to the Norwegian aid group, in 2012 some 50 percent of the displaced Afghans received aid; five years on that number dropped to 25 percent. Aid agencies in the country required $612 million to enable them to fulfill aid obligations for 2019, yet only $14.2 million has so far been donated.

Close to 140 of the country's 400 districts had not seen a single female graduate in the past 18 years while about 50 districts were unable to produce male graduates. Schools built in the early years after the Taliban rule was toppled have been shuttered or destroyed during the conflict.