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The Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan was dubbed a monumental security challenge for the international community. A humanitarian crisis ensued, with millions of Afghans plunged into poverty, and the country's economy began to collapse.

Major world powersscrambled to tackle the situation, and efforts were made to ensure Afghanistan's stability and put pressure on the country's new Islamic fundamentalist rulers.

Seven months later, Afghanistan is no longer a main concern for Western powers, as they shift their focus to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Observers say the Taliban see it as an opportunity to implement their hard-line policies in the country, knowing that the international community is "busy elsewhere."

Tamim Asey, the executive chairman of Kabul's Institute of War and Peace Studies and a visiting research fellow at King's College London, told DW that he believes "a lack of international interest" in Afghanistan's crisis could pave the way for terror groups and criminal networks to regather and regain strength.

"Unfortunately, Afghanistan has taken a backseat. This will push Afghanistan further into turmoil and will provide an opportunity fortransnational criminal networks to recover," he told DW.

Few in the West see an immediate security threat emanating from Afghanistan. So far, the Taliban are seeking to gain international recognition and financial aid and have been more inclined toward a "diplomatic" approach than employing violent tactics.

But experts say this superficial calm may not last for long.

"History tells us that humanitarian crises could lead to violent conflicts. It is easier for terrorist groups to operate in a country that is facing economic turmoil. Afghanistan is no exception," Shamroz Khan Masjidi, an Afghan political analyst, told DW.

If the humanitarian crisis is aggravated in Afghanistan, even the Taliban won't be able to manage the situation, as evidenced by recent violent attacks by theIslamic State group.

Salahuddin Ludin, a political expert in Afghanistan, told DW that life has become "extremely difficult" for most Afghans.

"International aid organizations have left the country. The Taliban are unable to pay the wages to government employees. The public health care sector is in a disarray," he pointed out.

Apart from the suffering of the rural population, even Afghans based in cities are finding it impossible to make ends meet.

Ludin said many Afghans had put their savings in bank accounts: "Now, they cannot access them. Afghan businessmen, for instance, cannot make international transfers, which has resulted in high commodity prices in the country."

The Taliban have been demanding that the United States releaseAfghanistan's frozen assets so that they can tackle the worsening economic crisis. Washington has refused to hand over the money to them, which means that Afghanistan's Islamist rulers could look for "financial aid" from "non-state actors," say experts.

Sardar Mohammad Rahman Ughelli, Afghanistan's former ambassador to Ukraine, says the world is already "forgetting" about the Afghanistan crisis.

"Even the international media is not covering the crisis in Afghanistan," he said, adding that the Taliban are now free to implement their regressive policies in the country.

Some observers say the current situationis disturbingly similar to the geopolitical scenario in the late 1990s. The Taliban seized power in 1996, but the international community did not fully grasp the potential consequences of the new paradigm.

Away from the global spotlight and with a lack of world interest in Afghan affairs the country became a hub of local and international militant groups.

"The Taliban have ties with international terrorists. Their return to power has emboldened jihadi organizations in the region. As they consolidate themselves, their tactical and strategic ties with terrorism financiers and sponsors will grow and will eventually jeopardize peace and security in the region and beyond," Farid Amiri, a former Afghan government official, told DW.

Tariq Farhadi, an adviser to former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, agrees with this view. "The international community forgot about Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 during the Taliban's first regime. It is possible that it will be forgotten again," he added.

The longer the Taliban stay in power, Amiri said, the more difficult will it get to maintain stability in the region.

"Regional powers will start supporting proxies to keep the violence within Afghanistan's boundaries. But it will only be a short-term solution to the Afghan conflict," Amiri said.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

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Ukraine war: Why the West cannot afford to ignore Afghanistan - DW (English)

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (March 17, 2022) An Afghan mother agreed to sell her unborn baby as the country's economic crisis forces jobless, debt-stricken parents to abandon their children, Save the Children said.

Stories like these are becoming too common in Afghanistan as destitute parents resort to increasingly desperate measures to survive. In a recent survey, Save the Children spoke to 30 families who had exchanged a child for debt, and analysis by the aid agency suggests that as many as 121,000 children could have been exchanged across the country since August 2021.

Nosheen*, 36, lives with her husband and their five children in Afghanistan's northern province of Jawzjan. She is pregnant with their sixth child, but her husband, Aziz*, told her they had no choice but to sell the unborn child.

"Sad doesn't even come close to how I feel," said Nosheen. "If you lose a needle, you will be sad. This is my child. Of course, I will be sad."

Aziz*, 47, explained they were offered approximately USD $565 for their unborn baby, which would allow the family to repay a considerable portion of their debt.

"We are in a very bad situation," he said. "We have nothing to eat in the house. Every day I go to the city center to work. I hardly earn enough money for a few pieces of bread. Most days I can't find work. So I decided that, as I have five children, I will sell our unborn child so that the others can survive and don't die of hunger."

The collapse of the economy and the ongoing fallout from last year's drought have triggered an unprecedented food crisis in Afghanistan. The majority of families have lost some or all of their incomes and are unable to afford the rising cost of food, and as the war in Ukraine increases the cost of commodities around the world, there's a risk that the cost of living in Afghanistan could rise even further.

Save the Children's survey found that 96% of families are eating a very limited variety of foods or foods they do not want to eat, and more than half of adult respondents (52%) reported that their children were showing visible signs of malnutrition, such as thinning or stunted growth.

Like many families in Afghanistan, Nosheen and Aziz* have resorted to borrowing money to feed their children, and they are now in debt.

"I have borrowed 70,000 Afghanis (approximately $809) for food," said Aziz*, "Today, people knocked at the door asking for their money. Being in debt is worse than being hungry because they demand the money every day, but I don't have money to pay.

"We wait for someone to bring us a few pieces of bread; if not, we go hungry the whole day or night. I struggle hard to find work so that my children don't go hungry."

Save the Children has been supporting the family with cash assistance and has since convinced the family not to go ahead with the sale of their child. In addition, the agency's child protection team will continue to visit the family regularly to ensure the child is safe and protected after it is born.

The foreign aid that once propped up Afghanistan has been slow to return after governments and international financial institutions cut funding and froze Afghanistan assets in the wake of last year's transition of power. Save the Children is calling for the international community to urgently find solutions to unfreeze financial assets to restart the Afghan economy and warned that the measures are worsening the humanitarian crisis.

**Save the Children's Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, Athena Rayburn, **said:

"The tragic lengths that parents are going to; to keep their children alive tells you just how dire the situation is getting in Afghanistan. Organizations like ours are doing everything they can to support families who have lost everything, but with the economy at a standstill, Afghan families are sinking into quicksand.

"While the world's attention is on the plight of refugees fleeing Ukraine, we must not forget the people of Afghanistan. Funds are urgently needed to keep children alive and with their families. However, there is no amount of aid that can replace a functioning economy. Until we address the economic crisis, families will have no other option but to make desperate, life-altering decisions in order to survive."

Save the Children is providing families with urgent cash assistance, which helps to prevent families from resorting to desperate measures like giving up their children, marrying their daughters, or cutting back on meals.

At a recent cash distribution for struggling families, one mother, Fatima*, told Save the Children's team: "I have six children. I was even considering selling them because I can't afford to provide for them. We haven't paid the rent for the house for two months now. The owner warned us that he will throw us out into the snow. Getting this cash will save me from selling my child."

Since September, the agency has reached 913,000 people -- including 508,000 children -- and provided more than 155,000 people with cash transfers. It is also identifying children who are at risk of neglect, exploitation, violence, or abuse, and works with their families to come up with long-term solutions to ensure they are kept safe and have their rights protected.

Read more here:
Afghanistan: Desperate mother agreed to sell her unborn baby as debt-ridden families are pushed to crisis point - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

The risk of armed conflict remains low; however, the declining economic situation continues to drive criminality.The de-facto authorities carried out door to door search operations in February, including at NGO compounds,in a claimed attempt to seek out criminal activity.

Public universities reopened in February for both male and female students. The Ministry of Education alsoannounced that girls will be returning to secondary schools at the end of March, after more than six months of girlsbeing forced out of school.

8 polio health workers were killed at the end of February in Kunduz and Takhar provinces, forcing thesuspension of the vaccination campaign in these provinces. This suspension leaves thousands of childrenunprotected and exposed to a life-threatening disease.

Two thirds of the population are resorting to crisis-level coping strategies to feed themselves, like skipping mealsand pulling children out of school to work. An estimated 1 million children are engaged in child labour currently.

$1 billion is set to be released from the ARTF to UN and INGO agencies to fund education agriculture, healthand family programs in Afghanistan. $280m was already released from this fund to WFP and UNICEF at the endof 2021. At the beginning of February, the US also announced the release of half of Afghanistans $7billionfrozen assets. The other half will remain available pending legal litigation related to 9/11 victims.

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Save the Children's Response in Afghanistan - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

Goldberg's op ed piece from March 7 was interesting and a worthwhile read but I must take issue with his slamming of President Joe for the Afghanistan fiasco. Goldberg and most every other pundit and arm chair expert have piled on to President Joe over his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I contend that it is grossly unfair and inaccurate to pin all the blame on Biden. Over 20 years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, billions of taxpayer dollars poured into arming and training the Afghan military. Many precious American lives were lost defending Afghanistan. And yet the Afghan armed forces melted like snow in spring when the going got tough. If Afghans refuse to fight for their own country and countrymen -- why should another American tax dollar be spent or another precious American life be lost fighting for them? Also I contend that countless mistakes were made over the 20 years that contributed to the debacle. Shouldering Biden with all the blame is both unfair and inaccurate.

Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.

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Letter: exit from afghanistan | Letters to the Editor - Arizona Daily Star

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Nadeem Raza, who is on official visit to Germany and Switzerland, called on Chief of the Defence Forces, Germany General Eberhard ZORN.

According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), matters of bilateral professional interest including further strengthening of security and defence cooperation between the two countries were discussed in the meeting.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to work together for peace, security and stability in the region particularly in Afghanistan.

Chairman JCSC during his visit of Germany also visited German Infantry School at Hammelburg and Center for Internal Leadership at Kolbenz where he was briefed about the mandate and curriculum of the institutes.

Later, General Nadeem Raza visited Switzerland where he called on Chief of Swiss Armed Forces Lieutenant General Thomas SUSSLI.

Chairman JCSC reviewed the full gamut of bilateral defence relations and exchanged views on global and regional security environment and enhanced military and defence cooperation between the two Armed Forces.

Chairman JCSC also visited Geneva Center for Security Policy. GCSP is an international foundation that provides executive education and training in comprehensive international peace and security policy.

During the visit of the center, General Nadeem Raza highlighted the security perspective of Pakistan on geo-strategic situation of the region with emphasis on Afghanistan.He emphasized upon the need for reconciliation within Afghanistan for regional peace and security.

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Pakistan, Germany vow to work together for peace, security in Afghanistan - The Nation