For many ordinary Afghans, any relief will come too late.
Afghan businessman Shoaib Barak is struggling to pay his employees and suppliers, who are unable to access funds from the banking system crippled by the country’s freezing of foreign assets.
They, in turn, cannot pay their bills – and so the country’s economic woes subside and hurt everyone with an unbroken chain of misery.
“I’m so ashamed,” said Barack, who recently employed nearly 200 people across the country – mostly in his construction business.
“To me, to every Afghan, it’s really disgusting. I don’t even have the ability to pay my employees.”
To avoid giving Taliban access to Afghanistan’s stockpile, Washington sealed An estimated $10 billion held by central bank abroad after radical group confiscated power on 15 august
Equivalent to nearly half of what the country’s economy produced last year, the move in turn resulted in starved banks used by Afghan businesses and citizens with no access to the dollar.
Even if limited funds were released, the bulk could be tied up in the American legal system for years, subject to the claims of the victims of the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on America.
Ordinarily, reserves can be sunk to pay for government bills and overdue development projects, but the freeze has hit the rest of the economy.
“Just release the reserves,” begged Barack.
“If you have a problem […] Don’t take revenge on Taliban, country, people.”
currency fell
Barak’s cash flow crisis reflects the problems facing thousands of Afghans who cannot access most of their money.
He says he has contracts worth nearly $3 million in Afghan banks – money earned over the years from lucrative private and government contracts, paid in dollars as aid poured into the public purse under the pre-Taliban regime. .
But with local banks limiting weekly withdrawals to five percent of business account balances — up to a maximum of $5,000 — Barack is months behind in both invoicing and paying his employees.
Ahmed Zia is one of them.
The 55-year-old engineer was earning 60,000 afghani per month – the equivalent of $770 before the Taliban came to power and the currency fell 25 percent.
Four months later, Xia is struggling to make ends meet and fears that her once-comfortable family of six will only “eat once or twice” per day.
It’s not just Barack’s employees who are suffering.
Ehsanullah Maroof’s now defunct law business relied heavily on the monthly maintenance of Barak’s construction company.
“The kids went to a very good school,” he said AFP, proudly observing that his nine-year-old daughter Rana topped her year.
But now he cannot afford the right medicine for an epileptic son, and Rana is expelled because the family cannot pay school fees.
running out of food
The misery becomes even less – for the maid of the Maroof family, who is now unemployed.
Gulha, 42, earned 8,000 Afghanis a month and was the main breadwinner in her seven-strong family. Now he is on rent for two months and has no food.
“I have 14 kilograms (30 pounds) of rice, 20-21 kilograms of flour and some oil,” she said AFP In a one-room apartment where she allows neighbors to share the wood burner’s nightly heat as winter descends.
“It will last 10 days.”
Once it is over, she will join the millions of her compatriots who are completely dependent on aid.
United Nations Security Council on Wednesday adopted unanimously A US proposal to help drive humanitarian aid to desperate Afghans while seeking to keep the money out of the hands of the Taliban – a move welcomed by the group as a “good move”.
But Hanna Luchnikawa-Shorsch, principal Asia-Pacific economist at IHS Markit, said that whether enough cash comes in to avert the unfolding humanitarian disaster ultimately depends on “the viability of the banking system”.
He said many Afghan banks are “close to collapsing”. AFP, and foreign institutions would be “intimidated” by the breach of sanctions despite the UN resolution.
For many ordinary Afghans, any relief will come too late.
International organizations have warned that one million Afghan children could die this winter, notes Barak. “Who do you think will be blamed – the Taliban, or the US?”
Header image: In this photo taken on December 18, Afghan businessman Ehsanullah Maroof (R) poses for a photo with his daughter Rana at their home in Kabul. — AFP
,