In the days and nights when the people of Afghanistan are grappling with serious economic problems and a livelihood crisis, the cessation of humanitarian aid by some countries has provided an opportunity for a number of figures to express their joy at this situation.
These reactions, while seemingly interpreted as opposition to the caretaker government, actually reveal the deep disregard of these opponents for the situation of the country’s poor and needy.
Over the past two years, opponents of the caretaker government have repeatedly claimed that the aid packages transferred to Afghanistan from abroad are going directly to the government, while aid organizations have repeatedly confirmed the opposite.
According to the official report from UNAMA (the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) released on January 9, 2023, nearly 1.8 billion dollars have been transferred to Afghanistan since December 2021.
However, contrary to the claims of some biased media and infamous figures from the previous republic, this money did not reach the government, was not deposited in the country’s central bank, nor was it managed by officials.
According to the report, the aforementioned amounts were solely for the internal use of the United Nations and its international partner organizations in Afghanistan; these expenses include staff salaries, office rent, transportation, administrative costs, field operations, technical equipment, and other logistical matters.
In the meantime, a negligible portion of these aid packages, in the form of limited food parcels or cash, and under the direct supervision of these same institutions, has reached needy families.
Despite this, some media outlets and opposition figures – who have been funded by these very aid funds for years – have welcomed the end of this process, calling it a sign of the ruling structure’s failure.
This is while such a halt has affected costly and ineffective foreign institutions more than the structure of the government; institutions that were actually spending the majority of humanitarian aid on their own expenses, not on the people of Afghanistan.
The painful point is that many opponents of the caretaker government – despite always chanting the slogan of supporting the people of Afghanistan – are now complaining neither about reduced care for the needy in the face of the cutting of these resources, nor are they demanding a suitable alternative to fill this gap. Instead, all that matters to them is the political failure of a government they dislike, even if it means an entire nation goes hungry.
Without a doubt, if these aids were truly humanitarian and if these individuals were truly concerned about the people, they should be worried about their cessation, not happy.
Consequently, those who express delight at the cessation of even the smallest aid during difficult times for the people are, in fact, not hostile to the caretaker government, but to the people of Afghanistan.
Those who take pleasure in the orphan going hungry, the sick person’s aid being stopped, and funding for a school or madrasa being cut off can never claim to be benevolent towards this nation.
Perhaps this whole affair, with all its bitterness, has one positive outcome: that the mask has been lifted from the faces of many, and it has become clear that the aid that came for years in the name of the Afghan nation was actually going into the pockets of those who are overjoyed by its cessation today.
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