U.N. agencies are expressing grave concern about the welfare of Afghanistan’s civilian population, especially women and children, as Taliban insurgents tighten their control over the country.
Afghanistan for many years has been one of the worst places on earth to be a child. U.N. agencies report every day, the flaring conflict in Afghanistan is taking a greater toll on the lives and well-being of the country’s women and children.
A recent U.N. report finds more than 550 children have been killed and an estimated 1,400 maimed this year. This is the highest number of child casualties in the first six months of any year since the U.N. began keeping records in 2009 in Afghanistan.
U.N. Children’s Fund chief of field operations & emergency, Mustapha Ben Messaoud, said in the past few weeks, conditions for children have worsened. Speaking on a video link from the capital Kabul, he said the health and nutritional status of children are of major concern.
“As we speak, our prediction for 2021 are one child out of two will be severely malnourished. There are 18 million Afghans that are in need of humanitarian assistance. Half of them are children,” he said.
Ben Messaoud adds UNICEF is becoming increasingly concerned about the rise in grave violations, especially the recruitment of children by armed groups.
UNICEF has 13 field offices across the country. They have remained open throughout the many months of fierce conflict. Over the past two weeks, Ben Messaoud has been in the major cities of Kandahar, Herat, and now Kabul and has seen the direct impact of the fighting on the Afghan people.
The UNICEF official said he and colleagues have been in direct contact with the Taliban. He said they have met with military commanders and with newly appointed Taliban NGO commissioners.
He said UNICEF has discussed the importance of retaining its female national and international staff and has pressed them on the issue of girls’ education.
“The stand of the Taliban is more or less the same, but we see small differences especially in terms of girls’ education…For the female Afghan colleagues—here again we had mixed, measured answers from them. But let us say that we are cautiously optimistic on moving forward,” said Messaoud.
UNICEF is calling for immediate and unhindered access to the hard-to-reach areas to deliver much needed support to the Afghan population. Officials say it is particularly critical to reach women and children who are paying the heaviest price in this violent, turbulent society.
