By Elyas Ahmadi
Zarmina has patched her children’s clothes many times. She cannot afford to buy her children new ones. A resident of Jaghuri district in Ghazni province, Zarmina says she sees the longing in her four children’s eyes for a meal with just some oil. Unemployed and alone, she relies on donations and aid from organizations like the World Food Program (WFP) to survive the cold winter.
With the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the Afghan economy has stagnated, pushing millions more people into poverty and hunger. Zarmina says she has only benefited from the WFP’s aid twice since the Taliban takeover. “God is witness, my children have grown up with people’s help,” she says.
The expectation is that international aid reaches those most in need like Zarmina. But in practice, that isn’t always the case.
Reliable sources from Ghazni have told Rukhshana Media that there is corruption in the WFP aid distribution process. According to these sources, in some districts, Taliban authorities siphon extra aid to their local government and interfere with distribution. The sources also claim that as much as a third of the WFP aid is sold in markets before it’s distributed.
Baryalai Andar*, 27, who worked for the WFP in Ghazni province for two years, says via phone that he personally witnessed corruption and Taliban interference. “In Jaghori [district], I have seen them taking up to 30 aid packages of shares for themselves.”
Mr. Andar, who mostly worked in the distribution and survey department in different districts of Ghazni, added that in addition, about 30 percent of the organization’s aid is sold off by the village leaders. “All the village leaders sell the aid to hotels, bakeries, and wholesalers,” he says. “For example, they sell flour to bakeries, beans, and grains to hotels and wholesalers.”
In Ghazni’s Malistan district, two reliable sources told Rukhshana Media that the local Taliban authorities had taken aid from the WFP distribution. A 57-year-old village elder from the district, who requested anonymity for security reasons, reported witnessing this himself. “Out of the 1,500 packages that reached Malistan, the Taliban took 150 packages,” he revealed.
A 48-year-old shopkeeper from Meer Adina bazaar in Malistan district backed up the claim, saying that he had seen WFP aid packages being sold in the market. “The Taliban take some of the aid to bakeries to cook for the district office,” he said. “They send other amounts to their homes or sell it in the bazaar.”
Sources in different villages of Ghazni’s Nawa district say that the Taliban had distributed part of the WFP aid packages between the permanent residents of the district and Pashtun nomadic groups. One source discussing the cash aid packages said, “Employees came to do the survey, but the Taliban did not allow them to distribute the aid. They said, ‘You should share with the nomads.'”
Mr Andar said he has also seen this preferential treatment, saying that the Taliban had given at least 300 aid packages to the Kochi people, as they chose. “They said that a part of the aid should be distributed to the nomads, otherwise they would not allow the distribution of packages,” he added. “In the end, they gave 300 or 400 packages to the nomads.”
According to Mr. Andar, WFP’s cash packages came in two categories of 4,300 or 4,900 Afghanis. He says the Taliban forcibly took a large sum of the aid and provided 1,380,000 Afghanis (equivalent to $16,235) of the cash packages to the residents of Nawur district and the Kochis.
Another WFP employee, who worked primarily in Nawur district, explained via phone that the reason the Taliban suppling aid to the Kochi nomads was divisive is because the Kochis have aid that is separate from the supplies sent to the permanent residents of the district.
In Ghazni province, numerous impoverished families and widows rely on aid from individuals and organizations. Nastaran*, 36, a resident of Nawur district who lost her husband 11 years ago, says of the WFP’s aid, “They give a very small package, a few kilos of beans, half a parcel of flour. It will not satisfy poor people’s stomachs.”
Zarghuna*, 48, another woman seeking help from others, says that the aid is often distributed through a system tied to mosque donors, or “partners”. Because of her difficult economic situation and not having a permanent home, she is unable to pay the local mosque’s share to the mullah and, as a result, is denied aid from the WFP. “When we go to receive aid, they say that you are not a partner in the mosque,” she says.
Azizullah Alizada, a religious scholar and social activist in Ghazni city, told Rukhshana Media that the poorest families do not benefit from the WFP’s aid. “About 2,000 families whose situation is very bad are on my list,” he says. “Most of them have a card to receive WFP assistance, but only very few actually receive any help.”
In 2022, the United Nations estimated that 97 percent of Afghanistan’s population would be living below the poverty line by 2023, with more than 23 million people in dire need of humanitarian help. While the problem will not be resolved with aid alone, corruption and interference from Afghanistan’s de facto authorities means that even more people miss out.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John F. Sopko, testified before lawmakers at US Congress this week, emphasizing the challenges faced by humanitarian organizations operating in Afghanistan and underscored the concerns that aid is not reaching those in need.
“The U.S. government lacks the personnel on the ground in Afghanistan to effectively oversee and monitor the billions of dollars in assistance we are providing,” Mr Sopko said.
The deteriorating security situation and lack of access to many areas make it nearly impossible to guarantee that the aid reaches its intended recipients, he said. “There is no simple or risk-free solution to providing aid in Afghanistan,” he added.
In light of these concerns, Sopko urged the US government and international organizations to reconsider their approach to providing assistance in Afghanistan, and emphasised the need for better oversight and accountability mechanisms, along with closer coordination with local communities and authorities.
The United Nations has launched an appeal for a staggering $4.6 billion for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, reflecting the dire circumstances so many in Afghanistan are facing.
Like Rahmatullah Ehsani*, 27, a resident of Ghazni Province. Previously employed as a cook for the military forces under the former government, Rahmatullah has confronted severe economic challenges since its collapse in August 2021. “The aid that comes does not reach poor people,” he says. “Help goes to the rich and famous.”
Baryalai Andar agrees that this happens in practice because the aid is not means-tested. In most villages within Ghazni’s districts, the aid is distributed to all residents equally. “The rich and the poor get equal help. Because of this, they either aid either several months apart, or it is so little that it does not have much impact on their lives. If the aid were given to those whose poverty is more severe, their problems would be solved.”
Since August 2021, Rahmatullah says his situation has become even more precarious. “We received aid twice. All of it consisted of two parcels of flour, and a barrel of oil weighing 5 kilos,” he says. His problems intensified when the Taliban imprisoned him for allegedly possessing a government-issued motorcycle from the previous government, and then forced him to purchase a motorcycle for them. “God as my witness, I had to borrow about 50,000 Afghanis and go buy them a motorcycle,” he says.
Rahmatullah’s voice catches as he continues, “There is no work, I have no money, I am in debt. When I go home, my two-year-old daughter, not understanding that I don’t have money, asks for something to eat and tells me to go to the store.’”
Between December 2021 and January 2023, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that only $1.8 billion in cash aid was sent to Afghanistan. However, there is no accurate information on how this aid was used and to what extent it helped.
Rukhshana Media sent questions about these complaints to the WFP spokesperson’s office in Afghanistan, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
*Names have been changed for security reasons.
