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Up to now few weeks a number of reviews have emerged of Afghan elites and several other former officers from the West-backed Kabul authorities escaping to luxurious condos in Dubai and beachside villas in California through the Taliban takeover of the nation final August.
However tens of 1000’s of Afghans, who additionally left the nation, nonetheless languish in cramped refugee camps the world over, whereas again dwelling, hundreds of thousands of others face starvation.
Final week, greater than 1,000 folks had been killed and 10,000 properties had been destroyed after a robust earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan.
Former Afghan officers, together with aides of former President Ashraf Ghani, spent hundreds of thousands to purchase properties in Dubai and the US over the last years of the West-backed authorities, in line with a current report by the Wall Road Journal.
A US watchdog stated earlier this month that hundreds of thousands of {dollars} disappeared from the presidential palace and the Nationwide Directorate of Safety through the Taliban takeover final August. The cash stays unaccounted for, although Ghani unlikely fled with hundreds of thousands of money, in line with the watchdog.
The previous president moved to the world-renowned five-star St Regis lodge in Abu Dhabi after leaving Afghanistan. He now lives within the UAE.
Tens of 1000’s of Afghans, who labored for the US and NATO forces, had been airlifted because the US forces had been withdrawing from the nation after 20 years of struggle, however lots of them are caught in refugee processing centres the world over with an unsure future.
Corruption and misappropriation of funds
The reviews of corruption inside the Afghan authorities and misappropriation of funds within the largely aid-dependent nation put the highlight on how Afghans – each refugees in addition to these within the nation – have been failed by their management.
“I gave the most effective years of my life to rebuilding this nation, to educating the following era of thinkers. And now right here I’m, weak and unable to even help my circle of relatives, whereas those that did nothing for the nation stay comfy lives,” stated Mina, a college professor who wished to be recognized by one identify.
Mina constructed a profession of greater than 10 years, working as a revered professor and a distinguished voice on ladies’s rights in Afghanistan. We’re withholding the identify of her college because of safety causes.
Her work has been severely affected owing to rising Taliban restrictions on ladies. Lots of her lessons have been cancelled, she has not been paid in months, and he or she typically faces harassment from Taliban guards for going out with out a mahram (male escort). Afghan ladies nonetheless are barred from attending excessive faculties and ladies are more and more being excluded from public life, bringing again the reminiscence of the final Taliban regime of the Nineteen Nineties.
The Taliban has struggled to revive the war-battered economic system after the West slapped sanctions, with the US freezing the Afghan central financial institution funds value practically $10bn following the withdrawal of US-led forces.
The monetary disaster within the nation has trickled into her family, and as her household’s sole breadwinner, Mina has been struggling to make ends meet on a considerably diminished and intermittent wage, with rising costs.
Within the final 10 months, she was solely paid twice and it was lower than half of what she was owed.
“A yr in the past, cooking oil was 50 Afs [$.56] per kilo, and as we speak it’s over 150 Afs [$1.69]. A bag of flour was 1600 Afs [$18], however now it’s over 4000 Afs [$45]. I haven’t been paid in months and have been borrowing cash to feed my household (her mother and father and her youthful sister). However even folks gained’t lend me any extra,” she stated, including that on most days, they divide any meals they will purchase into two or extra components in order that they’ve one thing to eat later.
“We’re ravenous and I really feel extraordinarily hopeless, particularly once I see that those that left us on this scenario reside comfy lives,” Mina, who relies in Afghanistan, informed Al Jazeera.
Struggling to outlive
In the meantime, Afghans pressured in exile and struggling to outlive watch painfully as corrupt former officers escape accountability.
Dr Kamaluddin Koshan was a journalist based mostly in Kabul earlier than the Taliban takeover. He later labored to develop into a health care provider to serve his folks, however now he lives as a refugee in neighbouring Pakistan typically depending on doles and charity.
“I had a satisfying and trustworthy earnings, however most of all I liked the work I did as a result of it helped our nation. I didn’t think about that is the place I might find yourself as we speak,” 34-year-old Koshan informed Al Jazeera, talking from Pakistan the place is at present residing, after having escaped Taliban threats for his work.
As a refugee, Koshan, who was the regional supervisor of the North Zone of Khaama Press, a distinguished Afghan company, now shares a small, dingy one-room house together with his spouse and three youngsters, all below the age of eight.
In keeping with a European Union report launched in Could, there are greater than 3 million Afghans residing in Pakistan, of which 775,000 are undocumented and most of whom stay in extraordinarily inhumane circumstances in casual settlements within the nation. Most of them had fled as a result of final 4 a long time of battle within the nation.
As their financial savings dry up, Koshan’s household has struggled to make ends meet.
“I’ve no earnings to pay for lease, electrical energy or gasoline. Meals can also be sparse, and there are days we go to mattress hungry. Generally my youngsters ask me for fruits and I can’t even afford that for them,” he stated, the exhaustion evident in his voice.
Within the 20 years earlier than that, Koshan stated, he had labored exhausting to attain each aim he set for himself.
“I additionally labored with many NGOs and Afghan civil society preventing injustice,” he stated, beaming with satisfaction as he narrated his life’s journey.
“Even my youngsters have been out of college for months as a result of I can’t afford to pay their charges. On daily basis that they miss schooling, their future is at stake,” he stated.
Whereas Taliban threats pressured Koshan into exile, he blames corrupt Afghan officers equally for his distress.
“They [corrupt officials] looted all the things that belonged to the nation for 20 years. They appointed one another in influential positions, after which rewarded one another,” he stated, his voice rising with anger.
“There was a lot nepotism and discrimination among the many elites, and completely no sense of loyalty in the direction of Afghanistan,” he stated.
Hundreds of thousands dealing with meals insecurity
In truth, the US’s Particular Inspector Basic for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F Sopko had echoed related considerations in grim warnings in June 2021.
“Corruption in Afghanistan isn’t just a legal justice problem. Systemic corruption in Afghanistan goes past that… menace to your entire US mission and worldwide effort in Afghanistan,” he stated, warning the Afghan authorities to “get severe” about addressing corruption whether it is ever to deliver lasting peace to its folks.
“Time is working out,” he had warned, simply weeks earlier than the collapse of the Afghan authorities of President Ghani.
Greater than 22 million Afghans are dealing with meals insecurity, in line with the UN’s World Meals Programme, because the nation stares at an financial collapse. Taliban’s diplomatic isolation has not helped the scenario.
Khalid Payenda, the final Afghan minister of finance, who was talked about within the Wall Road Journal report for proudly owning properties within the US, has denied the allegations.
He has shared his monetary data and sources of his belongings on his Twitter handle.
Payenda, a whistleblower on a number of reviews exposing corruption within the Afghan authorities, says Afghanistan’s corruption drawback was widely-known and even exploited by many networks and stakeholders.
“Corruption was endemic within the sense that it existed not simply on the nationwide stage but additionally the sub-national ranges, and inside all branches of the federal government, the chief, legislative and even the judiciary,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Payenda shared related assessments from his time inside the authorities system.
“In a single division, that was bringing in just one million afghani per 30 days, far lower than its potential, it elevated considerably below my tenure,” he stated.
Native information reviews from final yr affirm his declare, documenting an increase in customs assortment – 330m afghanis collected day by day in June 2021 versus 180m afghanis per day within the earlier quarter.
Koshan, who as soon as positioned a robust religion in Afghan democracy, is a disillusioned man.
“I usually voted within the elections and inspired others to take part, considering we may make a distinction. However they lied to us,” he stated bitterly.
“They informed us to work for the nation, whilst they constructed lives overseas, and deserted us the second issues bought worse,” he stated, making reference to the Afghan president’s escape on August 15, 2021 that triggered the collapse of the nation.
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