World Bank survey: 70% of Afghans can't meet basic needs

• 

While the West amplifies its cries against Russia and solidarity with Ukraine, a recent poll showed that 70% of Afghan households are unable to satisfy their basic necessities, a significant increase over the last May's 35%.

The World Bank's findings, released on Tuesday, imply that work possibilities in cities are restricted and that incomes have declined dramatically across the board, adding to family constraints.

According to Ghazala Mansuri, a World Bank economist, “There has been a big increase in adults reducing the amounts that they eat, so children can eat,” adding that food quality has also witnessed a decline. 

The percentage of employment in the public sector also decreased.

Read More: Is This the Fall of US Strategy in Afghanistan?

• 

David Miliband, the former UK Foreign Secretary and Chief Executive of the International Rescue Committee, has expressed that the West has caused "catastrophic" harm on Afghanistan and its own reputation by imposing a starvation strategy on the nation.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the number of Afghans in need of humanitarian help is over 24.4 million. 

In December, the UN approved a resolution proposed by the US to permit humanitarian relief to Afghanistan. 

Technically, President Joe Biden claims to fund humanitarian aid and then signs an executive order releasing $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds to be shared between humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 families.

According to The New York Times, the intricate strategy is intended to address a slew of legal blockages originating from the September 11 attacks and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Taliban movement, on its part, slammed the US decision to split the Afghan funds held in US banks between humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and 9/11 victims’ families as a showcase of theft and US moral decline, according to Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban political office.

"The theft of blocked money belonging to the people of Afghanistan by the United States, as well as taking possession of it, is a showcase of the human and moral decline of the country and people," Naeem said on Twitter.

Mohammad Naeem, a #Taliban spokesman, accused the US of "stealing" Afghan money and tweeted that seizing Afghan money represented the "lowest level of human and moral of a country and a nation." #PaykMedia #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/s1WimMtOAw

— Payk Media - Revealing the Truth (@PaykMedia) February 11, 2022

In the meantime, shortages of medicine have been warned about as well by the UN and other organizations.

In Afghanistan, the number of malnourished children has increased, with children at clinics unable to crawl or stand due to famine.

Anadolu news agency spoke with families of sick children and doctors in the region, where children aged 2 and 3 in clinics are as small as infants.

Babies are too weak to crawl, stand, or walk. They appear to be bearing the burden of US occupation.

• 

West should bear full financial responsibility for Afghan situation 

In December, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov told Sputnik that Western countries led by the US should bear full financial responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan, adding that Russia's focus is on providing humanitarian aid to the neighboring country.

The diplomat recalled Putin's words that "those who have been there for twenty years and drove the country to this state, they must bear the lion's share of financial responsibility."

"They — the West — froze Afghan assets, these are not the money of the Taliban, but the money of the Afghan people. And Russia now takes a highly moral position, we are already helping Afghanistan with humanitarian supplies," he added.