According to the United Nations, the number of Afghans living in poverty nearly doubled to 34 million as the country was rocked by the collapse of the US-backed government and the Taliban takeover.
After the US-backed republic fell in 2021, several countries refused to interact with the Taliban authorities in Kabul, and vast foreign subsidies were withdrawn and humanitarian programs drastically reduced.
Those NGOs that are still providing crucial assistance were handed a further setback in December when the Taliban government issued an edict prohibiting Afghan women from working for them.
The ban was extended to the UN’s Afghan women staffers last month, and the organization warned it faces a “appalling choice” over whether to continue its aid programs.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented a scathing new evaluation of 2022 data on Tuesday, saying that 34 million Afghans were living in poverty.
The statistic represents an astounding 15 million rise over 2020, the last full year of governance by the Western-backed regime, which collapsed in a matter of weeks the following summer.
There is no current census data for Afghanistan, but the UN uses a population estimate of 40 million, implying that 85 percent of the country is expected to be impoverished.
