Afghanistan accumulates setbacks and shortcomings a year after the Taliban return to power

To the worsening of Human Rights is added a serious humanitarian crisis

MADRID, 15 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

On August 15, 2021, Afghanistan turned its clocks back 20 years. Two decades after their overthrow at the hands of foreign troops led by the United States, the Taliban regained power with little opposition and began a political and social backsliding that the international community has already been unable to stop from a distance.

The United States and the Taliban signed in February 2020 in Doha (Qatar) the agreement that was called to end the foreign military presence in Afghanistan, by virtue of a progressive withdrawal plan that ended up being a dead letter before some political institutions fragile and a growing insurgency.

Thus, the Taliban undertook a reconquest that, province after province, culminated in mid-August 2021 with the formal capture of Kabul and the flight of the then president, Ashraf Ghani, in turn giving rise to a hasty evacuation that left scenes of panic and chaos at the capital's international airport.

Twelve months later, no country has formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan -in the first stage only Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan had done so-, but the need to reach other agreements, for example for sending aid, has led the international community to maintain contacts.

At the airport, already under the banner of the Taliban Islamic Emirate, there are regular flights to Dubai and Islamabad, while the visit in January this year of a delegation from the new regime to Oslo for talks with other parties -- including representatives of United States-- showed to what extent the scenario had changed.

All this despite the fact that the Taliban have hardly shown signs of political adaptation and continue to govern with the same profiles and doctrines as 20 years ago. The theoretically provisional regime excludes women and members of minorities while reserving a large presence for leaders persecuted by terrorists and members of the powerful Haqqani network.

The collective fear persists that Afghanistan will once again become a bastion for terrorist organizations since, despite the Taliban's confessed animosity towards groups such as the Islamic State -which operates under the affiliate of Khorasan Province--, they do seem to persist the ties that the late leader Mahmud Mansur forged with Al Qaeda.

Not in vain, Ayman al Zawahiri, Usama bin Laden's successor at the head of Al Qaeda and whose whereabouts were unknown for years, died this month in a US attack on a building in downtown Kabul, where analysts agree that he could not be in no case without the collusion or at least the knowledge of the current Afghan leadership.

A report published in July by the UN mission in Afghanistan also revealed the pattern of human rights violations that includes all kinds of abuses, from torture to arbitrary arrests, including extrajudicial executions. Among the main targets of the crackdown are people linked to the deposed administration and its security forces, with at least 160 confirmed killings.

Amnesty International agrees with this reading and regrets in its latest report that "all hope of change has vanished while the Taliban try to rule through repression and with total impunity." The Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested in September 2021 to resume its investigations into Afghanistan.

On a social level, the promises of the Taliban during their first days have fallen on deaf ears and they have not hesitated to launch messages against any behavior that contravenes their vision of 'sharia' or Islamic law, which affects issues such as leisure, clothing or education, especially in the case of women.

Sex segregation has become the norm in a country where girls are now banned from secondary education again. In addition, the general recommendation is that women do not leave the house if it is not necessary and, if they do, that it be in the company of a man and with practically the entire body covered with it.

Mariya, 16, claims in statements to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) her "right" to return to class and finish the three years she has left in secondary school. "Some of my friends and classmates suffer from depression," says this young woman, who acknowledges that with the Taliban the difference between genders has increased.

The humanitarian situation has not gotten better either, to the point that Afghanistan is considered one of the biggest crises in the world. The emergence of the Taliban has meant that the number of people with humanitarian needs increases by six million and now represents almost 60 percent of the population.

The UN estimates that 24.4 million people need help, 12.9 million of them children. Arezzo's family, seven months old and suffering from severe acute malnutrition, admits to UNICEF that they have been about to give her up for adoption on several occasions due to the impossibility of feeding her.

From a clinic, one of the mothers explains that when she went to this center for the first time her daughter was "very bad". "She had her eyes closed and would not stop vomiting. After a few days of treatment, she has opened her eyes," she explains.

97 percent of Afghans live in poverty and, for most families, 90 percent of income goes to food --according to United Nations data--, therefore without margin for unforeseen events or excesses in a context also marked by supply problems and the increase in basic products.

Seven out of ten boys and more than half of girls have already traded school for work, according to a World Vision survey across several regions. UNICEF puts at 13 percent the proportion of households that have at least one of their children working, while child marriage affects 28 percent of girls and adolescents.

All organizations agree that more funds are needed to alleviate the emergency. Of the 4.4 billion dollars required by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its humanitarian aid plan, only 1.8 billion have been collected, 41 percent of the total.