Council on Foreign Relations reports:

Months after the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan is in crisis. Millions of people are facing starvation, the health-care system is collapsing, and wages are plummeting.

The country of thirty-eight million people heavily depended on foreign aid before the Taliban came to power in August. Now, experts say it has been devastated by the international response to the hard-line Islamist group’s seizure of power: halting billions of dollars in assistance and enforcing sanctions that have impeded relief work.

UN officials have urged the United States and other countries to dramatically increase aid, but these governments face a dilemma now that the Taliban are in control. “Any expanded assistance to Afghanistan risks the charge that it is consolidating the Taliban in power and weakening leverage to influence their behavior,” former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan P. Michael McKinley writes for Foreign Affairs. Human rights abuses have only grown since the Taliban took over. They have overseen the public executions of dozens of people, an increase in threats against journalists and activists, a decline in girls attending school, and a tightening of restrictions on women, among other abuses.

The UN Security Council recently agreed that for one year, providing humanitarian assistance will not violate sanctions. But analysts say more needs to be done to address the widespread devastation. [Continue reading…]