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The Taliban launched this Sunday a program that seeks to combat the hunger that the population faces. They will offer about 66,000 tons of wheat in exchange for work. Payment in kind will help thousands of families facing extreme poverty.
The Taliban government launched a program to combat hunger and poverty in Afghanistan. The idea of the initiative is to offer some 66,000 tons of wheat to thousands of people, in exchange for working on state works. The government will employ 40,000 men in the capital alone, where the program will begin.
The work will not be paid for with money and will target those who are currently unemployed and most at risk of starvation in the coming winter. Every day their wages will be paid with wheat. The works will include the excavation of water channels and snow catchment terraces in the hills to combat the drought facing the country. They will also work on other development projects.
11,600 tons of wheat will be distributed in Kabul, in addition to another 55,000 in other parts of the country, including Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif and Pol-iKhomri. “We are trying to get our people out of the current situation and help them economically. Global humanitarian aid has also arrived,” said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. “All concerns will be resolved,” he added.
The program was launched in rural Kabul, attended by senior officials such as Agriculture Minister Abdul Rahman Rashid and the mayor of the capital, Hamdullah Nomani. At the ceremony they cut a pink ribbon and dug a small trench.
Thousands of Afghans could fall into poverty
According to Abdul Rahman Rashed, Minister of Agriculture in the Taliban government, the Afghan crisis is aggravated for several reasons. The first is a covid-19 pandemic, “the second is the drought in Afghanistan and the region. The third reason is the cessation of global aid to Afghanistan and the freezing of Afghan capital and money in international banks, ”he said.
According to a report published on September 9, 2021 by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, 97% of the people of Afghanistan could fall into poverty in 2022. UNDP warns that if there are no quick actions to try to avert the crisis Politically and economically, Afghans would be on the brink of universal poverty.
The isolation of the country could lead to a contraction of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 13.2%, which would cause an increase in poverty of 25%. Along with poverty, there is a risk of violation of human rights and individual freedoms, especially women, who have been the most affected by the arrival of the new Taliban government. International Amnesty did a call for the UN observation mission to continue in the country to ensure respect for human rights, especially in the Panjshir valley, where there are clashes between Taliban and Afghan resistance soldiers.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 630,000 people have been displaced from their homes so far in 2021. For its part, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs requested urgent aid on 7 September. for 606 million dollars for food security and agriculture, health and water quality.
Added to this, the blockages imposed by US banks prevent banks in Afghanistan from accessing remittances from the 5.85 million Afghans living abroad who send money to help their families.
With EFE, AFP and UN Agencies
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