Afghans held back in dream for better life

'Ultimate issue'

"And this ultimate issue is due to the freezing of assets. It's very difficult for even humanitarian aid to be channeled. It is money, not food or medicine, that cannot be channeled to Afghanistan under the garb of humanitarian aid as the banking system is frozen because of the sanctions."

With the US freezing Afghanistan's foreign reserves, the Afghan interim government has been unable to pay the salaries of government workers, reports say. The normal governance structures are just not functioning because of the strains, analysts say.

In a speech at the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi called the US' freezing of Afghan assets "a clear violation of the human rights of Afghans, and can be interpreted as enmity with an entire nation".

In sharp contrast to some Western countries' indifference to the humanitarian crisis, China and other countries have provided significant assistance to Afghanistan, covering food and other necessities, as well as medical supplies and COVID-19 vaccines. Their actions provide a ray of hope for desperate Afghans.

Afghanistan's caretaker government began to distribute the China-aided humanitarian supplies on Dec 24 to the country's 34 provinces.

China has said it would continue to give assistance such as food. On Dec 21 the Afghan Red Crescent Society received donations from the Red Cross Society of China.

On Dec 13 a second batch of winter supplies donated by China, including more than 70,000 blankets and 40,000 down coats, arrived in Kabul.

Earlier this month 27 containers packed with 500 metric tons of food and clothing donated by China arrived in the Afghan border city of Hairatan, in northern Balkh Province, a local official said.

On the health front, China has announced it will donate 3 million doses of vaccines and other medical supplies to Afghanistan. On Dec 8 a batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived in Kabul.

Other countries, including Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and India, have also provided food, medicine and winter supplies to Afghanistan. There have been pledges of assistance from countries including Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Last month Pakistan approved a corridor for supplies of food aid coming from India, in an initiative hailed as an exceptional gesture to help the Afghan people.

Food security program

Several international organizations are also making an effort to ease the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. The OIC's session on Dec 19 adopted a resolution to take a number of measures to help the Afghan people, including setting up a humanitarian trust fund, launching a food security program and coordinating with the WHO to secure vaccines and donations.

A triage center has been opened in the main hospital in Jalalabad city, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar Province, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported on Tuesday. It was built at a cost of $100,000 with financial support from the WHO.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has pledged to support 18 major hospitals throughout Afghanistan next year, with the aim of providing up to 550,000 consultations a month.

Dominik Stillhart, the ICRC's director of operations, called for essential services in fields of health, education, water and sanitation to be maintained in the country.

However, experts say that political conditions imposed by the West on the Taliban are counterproductive in a situation where the basic rights of the Afghan people are in serious jeopardy.

The world has been urged to contribute further to address the pressing issues in Afghanistan. That means countries need to engage with the Taliban, either through officials in Doha or directly with them, and find ways to expedite humanitarian assistance, Amina Khan said in referring to Qatar's long-standing diplomatic role in hosting Taliban representatives over the years.

Bashir said there is high hope that the US government will review its policies and the sanctions with a view to enabling the UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to assist Afghanistan.

"The West cannot remain aloof to the unfolding catastrophe," he said. "It has a moral responsibility to help the suffering people of Afghanistan. The humanitarian situation needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency."

Xinhua contributed to this story.