Afghanistan: A Nation in Crisis

Posted: 21 November 2001

Low food supplies, continuing drought, and the threat of military conflict make the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan a crisis of enormous proportions.

Nearly 6 million Afghan men, women, and children face extreme conditions this winter, with food supplies so low that many may well starve. These conditions existed before September 11.

By: Peter Bussian, for UNDP

Of the 24 million people living in Afghanistan, one-fifth live in abject poverty. It is a land devastated by 23 years of civil conflict, and an estimated 1.5 million people have died as a result.

Beyond the devastation of war and violence, many parts of the country have lost their livelihoods to a 3-year drought that is the worst in 50 years. The 2001 harvest has been about 50 percent of that of a normal year - and much lower in some regions. 75 percent of Afghans do not have safe water, 90 percent do not have adequate sanitation, and 75 percent do not have access to even the most basic health care.

The United Nations estimates that at least 1 million Afghan people had left their homes before September 11 in search of food in neighboring countries. Pakistan and Iran currently host the largest numbers of refugees anywhere in the world.

Today, fear of U.S. military attacks is driving several hundred thousand additional Afghans from their homes. Confusion, fear, hunger, and a lack of control over their own lives characterizes the condition of millions of Afghans. Most of them do not support either the Taliban government or the Al Qaeda terrorists hiding in their midst.

The urgency of the food situation cannot be overstated. Harsh winter storms will cut off all access to some of the country's most vulnerable and isolated communities, and if significant quantities of relief aid are not brought in soon, many will surely starve.

Oxfam began working in Afghanistan in 1989, and we have well-established relationships with effective community organizations throughout the country. Oxfam partners were already distributing food to more than 750,000 people, and we will continue our work throughout the current crisis.

Oxfam's concern is with the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, which is a crisis of enormous proportions. We call on the U.S. government to respond urgently:

Priority should be given to enabling people to remain in their home communities, rather than fleeing to outside refugee camps. Because of exposed and cramped conditions, camps place people in far more danger of becoming ill than if they are able to receive food aid and remain in their homes.

Of greatest importance to the future, Oxfam calls upon government leaders to begin to inject a strong and effective emphasis on humanitarian values in America's foreign policy. The enormous rewards of international economic exchange, in particular, must be understood not as entitlements for the few, but as the fruits of the world's labors to be shared. The inequities and injustices that place barriers to progress out of poverty around the world must be acknowledged and universally removed. The goal of a more just, safe, and humane world, recognizing the dignity of every person, is as essential in opposing terror and violence as any military capability or threat of international legal action.