Women advocacy group urges for assistance to aid Afghan population

Kabul: A women advocacy group based in Afghanistan has urged the UN agencies to immediately provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan population who are affected and displaced as a result of recent armed conflicts in the country.

In a letter to international humanitarian agencies, the Afghan Women Advocacy Group (AWAG) expressed concerns about the inaction of the international aid agencies regarding Afghans who have been displaced as a result of the Taliban attacks in places like the Balkhab district.

"AWAG calls on OCHA and ICRC as leading international humanitarian agencies and all other humanitarian organizations to immediately provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan population who are affected and displaced as a result of recent armed conflicts in the Bakhab district of Sar-e-Pul and the Panjshir and Andarab districts of Baghlan province," the group said.

The group acknowledged the collective efforts of the aid agencies to the Afghans who have been affected by the earthquake but raised concerns about the inaction of the international aid agencies regarding Afghans who have been displaced as a result of the Taliban attacks.

"We are certain that without your generous and timely aid, which included food and medical supplies, the situation could have become a humanitarian catastrophe, given the current situation in Afghanistan. However, we, as women of Afghanistan, are seriously concerned about the inaction of the international aid agencies regarding Afghans who have been displaced as a result of the Taliban attacks in Balkhab, Andarab and Panjshir," AWAG said.

The group said that "disturbing war crimes" are being committed by the Taliban against civilians in these districts and provinces and as well as reports of armed conflict which has already displaced thousands of families, including large numbers of women and children.

"Hundreds of families from the Balkhab district fed to the mountains while thousands of others fled to other provinces including Bamyan," the group said.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and imposed policies severely restricting basic rights--particularly those of women and girls. They dismissed all women from leadership posts in the civil service and prohibited girls in most provinces from attending secondary school. Taliban decrees prohibit women from traveling unless accompanied by a male relative and require women's faces be covered in public--including women TV newscasters.

The Taliban have carried out broad censorship, limiting critical reporting, and have detained and beaten journalists. Taliban forces have carried out revenge killings and enforced disappearances of former government officials and security force personnel. They have summarily executed people deemed affiliated with the Islamic State.

Armed groups linked to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State have carried out bombings targeting ethnic Hazaras, Afghan Shias, Sufis, and others, killing and injuring hundreds.

The Afghan economy collapsed after August 2021, as millions of people lost salaries when the US, World Bank, and other donors stripped the Central Bank of Afghanistan of its foreign assets and access to financial assistance. Over 90 percent of the Afghan population faces serious food insecurity, along with a lack of medicine and a rise in malnutrition-related disease. (ANI)