Afghanistan: The Cost of Inaction (June 2024)

THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

Almost three years on from the Taliban takeover, more than half the population – 23.7 million people, including 9.2 million children – remain in need of humanitarian assistance. Recovery from 40 years of conflict and entrenched poverty is increasingly challenged by stubbornly high-levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, protracted displacement, widespread explosive ordnance contamination, recurrent natural disasters, communicable disease outbreaks, climate change effects, political estrangement and heavily conditioned aid, as well as increasingly – since August 2021 – the imposition by the De-facto Authorities (DfA) of ever-more restrictive policies on women and girls’ rights and basic freedoms which have hindered their access to assistance and services, as well as their involvement in public life.