Parents who sold their daughter for 580,000 won… Drought, civil war and economic hardship in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, where the Taliban regained power after 20 years, civil war, drought, and economic hardships overlap, and local residents are facing a crisis of survival on the brink.

On the 25th (local time), the BBC covered the Herat region in western Afghanistan and reported the plight of the people driven by starvation.

According to a three-and-a-half-minute video released by the BBC, a parent outside of Herat agreed to sell their daughter, who can’t even walk, for about $500.

The child’s mother complained, “I didn’t want to sell my daughter, but the other children are starving.”

“The flour, the oil, there is nothing in the house,” the father said.

The baby’s parents have already received more than half of the $500. By the time this baby begins to walk, he leaves the family.

As the international community’s support was cut off, medical staff at a hospital in Herat did not receive a salary for four months. The cost of purchasing medical supplies has also been exhausted.

The BBC also introduced a six-month-old baby struggling to survive in the hospital.

The baby weighed less than half of her normal weight and was dependent on a ventilator.

The baby’s mother cried, saying, “I didn’t have enough money, so two of my children had to die.”

AFP reported on the same day that Afghanistan is suffering from severe drought, including the Bala Murghab region of western Badgis province.

“The last time we saw rain was last year, and it wasn’t that much,” said Mullah Pateh, the village chief of Haji Rashid Khan.

As the drought deepened, the residents had to sell their beloved livestock to make a living.

“I sold livestock to buy food,” Pateh said.

In 2018 alone, he had 300 sheep, but now it has been reduced to 20.

Villagers with livestock to sell, such as Pateh, are in a better position.

Some, like a family in Herat, make a living by selling their daughters or marrying them early.

According to the news agency, in the village this year, 20 households have married their young daughters to get money and food.

“If the drought continues, our two and five-year-old daughters will follow,” said Bibi Yelech, who is planning to marry a seven-year-old daughter following her already married 15-year-old daughter.

Of the 165 households in the village, 45 have left their hometown to escape from civil war and food shortages.

Haji Jamal, a resident of another village, lamented that “the fields have been destroyed and six people have starved to death in the past two years.”

The Taliban succeeded in taking power in Afghanistan on August 15, ending a long civil war, but they have been suffering from serious economic difficulties.

This is because the Afghan central bank’s foreign currency of US$9 billion (10.5 trillion won) deposited in the US and other countries was frozen, and aid from the international community was greatly reduced.

Meanwhile, inflation and unemployment are on the rise.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned that millions of Afghan people, including children, could die of starvation if no emergency measures were taken the day before, and said that it was necessary to lift the freeze on funding for humanitarian aid.

WFP Director-General David Beasley said that 22.8 million of Afghanistan’s 39 million people, or more than half, faced extreme food insecurity and starvation.