The Dirty Business of Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan
Image courtesy of Sohaib Ghyasi via Unsplash
When the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan in 2021, the country was plunged into the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world. The previous Afghan government was heavily reliant on foreign aid to function and provide crucial services to its citizens, so when it collapsed, the economy contracted by roughly 40 percent, and food insecurity rose to roughly 90 percent. Consequently, NGOs and foreign governments intervened to support the 40 million Afghans living under Taliban rule, keep the Afghan economy afloat, and stave off mass starvation.
Despite the copious amount of aid, which is helping to keep their regime from total collapse, the Taliban government, which seems more concerned with implementing draconian policies than building a successful state, has been unwilling to cooperate with international organizations and foreign governments, hindering progress in Afghanistan. In December 2022, just days after issuing a decree banning all women from universities, the Taliban banned female employees and volunteers of foreign aid organizations in line with their general agenda of erasing women from public life.
As a result, aid organizations such as the International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders immediately announced that they could no longer continue their operations within the country without their female employees. Due to societal norms of gender separation, which the Taliban worsened, many women are prevented from talking to men by the Taliban, meaning aid organizations must rely on women to reach other women. Out of the hundreds of aid organizations assisting the Afghan people, 86 percent have been forced to significantly scale back their relief efforts, and 38 percent have stopped aid entirely. In the following months, some of these aid organizations have been able to resume operations, albeit not to the same extent as before.
Governments responded to this decree similarly; the governments of Germany and Canada briefly suspended all their international aid agencies from operating in Afghanistan. However, two groups have more or less continued to operate without major stoppages, the United States and the United Nations. While the volume of funds and resources directed to Afghanistan’s population is promising, the UN and US’s aid distribution system is highly problematic; very little aid reaches the people, and the Taliban effectively controls the entire process, raking in billions of dollars worth of aid.
Since the Taliban’s takeover, the US has sent over one billion dollars to Afghanistan as humanitarian aid and economic assistance. Similarly, the UN has allocated nearly two billion dollars to fund its operations. The UN has faced criticism for the management of their imported money, as allegations have circulated that this money is heading directly to the Taliban’s pockets. The UN has denied such claims.
As a part of the UN system, the World Food Program stated that they would continue their mission in the country despite the complications in complying with the Taliban’s gender segregation laws. These restrictions have forced the program to turn directly to the Taliban for aid distribution in the absence of other aid organization partners. The WFP is primarily funded by the US, and reportedly, the Biden administration approved of the WFP’s decision to comply with Taliban laws despite this flying in the face of both American and UN principles.
Even before the decision to ban women from aid organizations, the distribution of international aid was seriously corrupted by the Taliban. The Taliban were reportedly stealing aid money for their own benefit, to benefit their supporters, or to gain political concessions. For example, the Taliban recently blocked the distribution of aid to a district of Kabul, which housed many residents from the Panjshir Valley. Panjshir has been the center of anti-Taliban resistance activity, and the Taliban has attempted to collectively punish its inhabitants. As reported by an Afghan news source, a resident of Kabul said, “We watch the aid of millions of dollars in the name of Afghanistan and the needy only through the media, but we have never benefited. Most of this money is misappropriated by the Taliban, and they are not accountable for where it is used. The United Nations does not report to the people or the world in this regard.” Additionally, aid is not being evenly distributed across the country. Some areas receive aid 20 times greater than others depending on their support for the Taliban.
But how does the Taliban pull off this massive heist of humanitarian aid to their country? Due to the mismanagement of the aid process, their job is surprisingly easy. The UN claims that any aid money entering the country is kept in a private, secure bank, which the Taliban cannot access. A former Afghan intelligence official followed the money and noticed that Taliban-appointed officials are assigned to aid organizations that sometimes attend organization meetings. Their approval is required to hire any new members to the organizations. The Taliban also have access to information on who receives the aid to ensure it is only distributed to regime supporters, giving them oversight and control over the aid allocation.
The Taliban also steals aid without needing to control the distribution process. The Taliban have also, according to an anti-Taliban opposition group, set up over 900 fake NGOs to collect humanitarian aid. Sometimes, the Taliban will simply demand that all civilians turn their aid over to them at gunpoint. The Taliban also confiscate cameras and phones during the distribution process to hide their actions from the media. All of this is occurring while the UN claims none of its money goes to funding the regime. These donations are intended for humanitarian relief, but they also include direct cash infusions into the Taliban-controlled central bank. Aside from a brief pause following the ban on female aid workers, the Taliban bank has received roughly 40 million dollars a week from the US and the UN. These direct payments are meant to stabilize the Afghan bank and economy. Still, they are delivered in physical cash shipments and are impossible to track, especially with the Taliban in charge, meaning that there is zero accountability on what the money is ultimately spent on.
A counterargument some have made is that allowing the Taliban to steal or misappropriate aid is a necessary evil since the only alternative option would be cutting off aid entirely. Opposition groups claim this is a problematic framing since not enough aid reaches the people to make a difference in people’s lives. Still, the aid stolen is enough to keep the Taliban regime alive and prolong the suffering they have induced. They mention that they are not against the aid itself but stress the need for a different distribution system.
A former Afghan military official described the grim situation in an interview. According to them,“The Taliban are observing and managing the money, deciding where it must go, to what people, in which parts of the country…The people have no choice. The [Taliban] have no support, especially in the Hazara and Tajik environments in Ghor and Badghis provinces and other remote areas. The U.N. people are Afghans. They have no power to object—they face danger, intimidation, and so do their families. And no one checks later.”
There is fear from American officials that this aid money, some of which is US tax dollars, is being spent on keeping the Taliban regime in power. Because most of the basic social services in Afghanistan are supplied by NGOs, the Taliban have the freedom to spend whatever money they receive on nefarious matters. These include payments to foreign supporters, such as Iran and Russia, general security expenditures, compensation to families of suicide bombers, and buying the loyalty of fighters and commanders who might otherwise defect due to lack of payment.
Since the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Biden administration has tried to put the entire ordeal in the “rearview mirror” of America and focus the public’s attention on other issues, likely to appease public opinion. Despite questioning from U.S. lawmakers on how the aid money going to Afghanistan is being spent and if US tax dollars were being given to the Taliban regime, the Biden administration has “stonewalled” inquiries into where the money is going. SIGAR, a government watchdog agency set up in 2008 to monitor money spent on Afghanistan-related projects, reported this year that the agency could not perform its job. The Biden administration has had very little transparency on the aid process as a whole, less so than previous administrations. The coverup runs even deeper than blocking government watchdogs. The 2023 Defense Authorization Act banned these direct cash infusions to the Taliban government, yet reports indicate they are still arriving every week.
Some have speculated that these potentially deliberate payouts to the Taliban are part of a larger “cash-for-intel” operation in which the US theoretically pays the Taliban for intelligence on terrorist groups such as ISIS-K and Al-Qaeda. This is highly counterproductive, as the Taliban supports the organizations the US expects them to sell out.
Another connected reason could be that Biden hopes the Taliban will continue to buy loyalty from their soldiers and prevent them from joining ISIS, who have managed to attract defectors from dissatisfied Taliban members. He could also be attempting to prevent the Taliban government from getting too close to US adversaries such as China, who have begun to invest in Afghan economic development. This move may also be an attempt to keep a pro-American sentiment in Afghanistan, although if this is the case, the endeavor has failed miserably. A final, more machiavellian reason for these cash payments may be to keep the Taliban from collapsing and Afghanistan hitting the headlines once again. Biden’s current political strategy involves ensuring Americans forget Afghanistan-no matter what. If this is the reason for these payments, it could be because Biden sees any stability in Afghanistan as good-even if that is Taliban rule. But it could also be an attempt to make the highly probable collapse of the Taliban regime a problem for the next administration.
Overall, aid distribution in Afghanistan is a highly flawed and corrupt system. It takes the well-intentioned aid money graciously provided by NGOs and sometimes even taxpayers, and funnels it into a system designed to keep a brutal terrorist state in power.
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