Afghanistan humanitarian crisis: Civilians sell organs, children to buy food under Taliban

This article contains facts some readers may find distressing

As the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan worsened under the hardline Islamist Taliban regime, the condition of the Afghan citizens deteriorated even further compared to what it was at the time of the Taliban’s political takeover in August 2021, after the fall of the West-backed former Ashraf Ghani government. Afghans are now resorting to some desperate measures in order to alleviate hunger and poverty and feed their families. 

Afghans selling organs, daughters to put food on table

According to the reports from the territory, families are selling their organs such as kidneys and even their own children, including the girl child, in order to buy food as the economy crumbles due to the pandemic into the third year, and Afghans were left without jobs or a source of income. Houses made of mud and clay lack basic amenities such as electricity, water, and heating systems and the winters have been harsh and extremely cold. 

All members in a struggling family in Afghanistan underwent surgery and sold their kidneys for around Rs 1,15,461 ($1,539) each. This was to “buy food,” they told Sky news. The mother at the time was grieving as the youngest member of the family, a toddler had starved to death. As most Afghans are selling their organs, doctors have no money to even buy the dressings to treat the infected wounds after the operation.

A 38-year-old Abdulkadir meanwhile was surviving on just tea and bread. Due to the severe drought conditions and conflicts, thousands of Afghans, mostly Pashtuns, were forced to abandon homes, mostly in the Shahr-i Sebz region. Those now under Taliban rule have no means to survive. 

“I was forced to sell two of my daughters, an eight- and six-year-old for 100,000 Afghani each [roughly Rs 72,471]  to strangers,” 50-year-old Delaram Rahmati who has to pay hospital fees to treat one of her two sons, who is paralysed, told Guardian newspaper. “Because of debt and hunger I was forced to sell my kidney,” she tells Rukhshana Media in the Herat slum.

“You can live without freedom, but you can’t live if you have nothing to eat,” a 32-year-old housewife from Nangarhar province who used to work as a maid separately told Qatar-based news agency, Al Jazeera as she sat in her one room home. 

Sardar Muhammad shows a scar from his kidney removal surgery after selling his organ near Herat, Afghanistan. [Credit: AP/Mstyslav Chernov]

[Credit: Twitter/@MrComments2021]

This is [new] Afghanistan under the Taliban’s rule--post-pull out for the US and coalition troops, the report stated, adding that this is also Afghanistan on which the US invested its 20 years, lives of many soldiers, and shelled out billions of dollars to "rebuild it”. 

India, an ally that helped elevate the Afghans out of poverty, had provided drinking water to 2 million residents of Kabul, and like the US, signed 150 projects worth Rs 592 crore ($80 million) was involved in rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan, that is now mostly in ruins under the Taliban regime. But New Delhi has had bitter experiences with the Taliban as it had mostly invested in peace and stability.

Both foreign troops and ordinary Afghan Army shed blood, and lives were sacrificed, but as the Taliban captured the territory, and is busy pressing the international community for global recognition, this is now a part of the world which the United Nations will soon declare center of globe's “worst humanitarian disaster”.

In Herat, a former major urban center in Afghanistan’s west bordering Iran where the Taliban captured the local commander Ismail Khan dubbed as ‘Lion of Herat,’ civilians are reeling under the desolation of poverty and hunger. According to Sky News, as the reporters entered the province they witnessed a line of Afghan citizens of varying ages, but mostly the women who suffered from chronic diseases and had no money for medical treatment. “Within minutes, old women were thrusting medical documents into our hands pleading with us for help,” a report carried by Sky News read, “mothers clutching babies begged us for food.”

Fatima holds her 4-year-old daughter Nazia, who is suffering from acute malnutrition, at their house near Herat. [Credit: AP]

The on-ground reporters for the network described the area turned so desolated that it was completely barren, with no water or shrubbery and the only source of income for the local population here was—selling their organs. 

A father of a family of eight children was looking for buyers to sell his kids. The couple had already sold their kidneys to arrange food, and after the three-year-old son died of malnutrition, six months ago, the 25-year-old mother told reporters that they would rather have someone else feed them. The father stated that they haven’t yet decided which child to sell, but they were ready to accept cash lesser than the price of his kidney. 

Aziz Gul, second from right, and her 10-year-old daughter Qandi, center, sit outside their home with other family members. [Credit: AP]

"We have nothing left to sell," he told Sky News, adding that they are left with the only option ‘sell our children’”. He then said that he was prepared to accept 20,000 Afghanis (Rs 14,494 or $200) as he cannot stand them crying from hunger at night."

In another house, three Afghan brothers and two sisters underwent surgery to arrange money for starving food. Since the Taliban took over the political power last year, the value of Afghanistan’s currency has collapsed with no financial or sound economic policies to left the country out of the crisis. Hard notes are in short supply, inflation has skyrocketed due to looming shortages of the basic commodities after the US and other foreign nations refused to legitimize the Taliban government. The decision was made by the Biden administration after the bomb attack on the US Marines at the time of the evacuation. Taliban calls the realities of Afghanistan "a myth" stressing that girls were in schools, and business is as usual.

Taliban soldiers walk towards Afghans shouting slogans, during an anti-Pakistan demonstration, near the Pakistan embassy. [Credit: AP]

While India at UNSC questioned the human rights abuses, condition of women and children, and opposed any prospects of terrorism emanating out of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the meeting of the Central Asian countries that included Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to discuss the evolving situation in Afghanistan and the humanitarian crisis.

Prime Minister Modi and Central Asian countries’ leaders agreed that there are ‘regional consensus’ on the issues related to Afghanistan under the Taliban regime such as the formation of a truly representative and inclusive government, combating terrorism and drug trafficking, the central role of the UN, and the humanitarian assistance reaching the people of Afghanistan.