Taliban Under Fire for Failing Quake Recovery
Michael Hughes
October 21, 2023
The Taliban, an insurgent outfit that now acts as de facto authorities, have proven adept at tax collection, budget balancing and even external trade. However, their complete incapacity in the face of the recent earthquakes is a disturbing sign for the future of Afghanistan – a country prone to natural cataclysms – from quakes to floods to droughts, after decades of war, environmental deterioration, and little thought or investment in disaster risk reduction planning.
The group has failed to effectively respond to a series of earthquakes – with magnitudes exceeding 6.0 – that struck Western Afghanistan since early October and impacted some 150,000 people. The UN estimated, as of October 17, that women and children accounted for 90% of the 1,384 killed in the quakes so far. In an update on Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said more than 21,500 homes have been damaged including about 8,400 “completely destroyed.”
An assessment of 188 of the 291 priority villages identified 1,800 unaccompanied minors, 1,400 unaccompanied elderly individuals, and 2,000 living with severe disabilities in the affected areas. To date ten water systems have been damaged in eight villages while the livestock death toll in three villages alone is expected to impact about 1,000 households.
Moreover, only 26,000 of those affected have received essential primary healthcare, while the World Food Program, as of October 18, had provided subsistence to only about 11,600 Afghans.
In other words, there is a long way to go. And without external actors driving momentum, it is hard to see the Taliban paving the way to anything resembling recovery. The Taliban is apparently willing to put the outside assistance at risk by placing the radical movement’s collective ego above the wellbeing of the country they supposedly govern.
FAILURE TO RESPOND
The Taliban have proclaimed that the group’s members swiftly arrived in affected areas in the wake of the disasters. However, many activists and other witnesses refuted the claims and have even suggested the Taliban could have saved many more Afghans trapped under rubble if they responded in a timely manner.
“For two to three hours after the earthquake, there was no information or accurate news,” Rashid Azimi, a local aid coordinator unaffiliated with the government, told DW. Azimi also accused the Taliban of “very poor management of the disaster.”
On October 18, the Taliban’s Disaster Management Minister, Mullah Janan Sayeq said the government would build over 2,100 houses in 20 villages of Zinda Jan district of Herat province for the earthquake victims. The bravado has been met with skepticism by locals, however, who sense more empty promises.
“The government has no plan for us,” Abdul Qayoum, 29, who lost seven family members, told EFE.
Complicating matters is the fact the Taliban want a key role in “coordination” of aid efforts and have even set up a commission. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told DW the commission’s job is to ensure “there is no corruption involved.”
This desire to assert control over the process has only exacerbated the problem, regional expert Michael Semple said in a piece for The Conversation.
“The fact is relations between the Taliban authorities and humanitarian organizations have become strained. The Taliban increasingly demand a say in how aid is delivered and to whom,” Semple wrote. “Agencies have experienced a shrinking of ‘humanitarian space’ – the freedom to operate independently according to agreed principles.”
As a result, Semple added, donors are suspicious as to whether the funds indeed reach those in need, which explains the sharp year-on-year decline in commitments to humanitarian operations in Afghanistan.
Middle East Institute (MEI) scholar Shanthie Mariet D’Souza echoed this suspicion, given the government is cash-starved and barely able to prop its security architecture even with an aggressive taxation policy. She also observed the significance of Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Baradar joining the officials in the visit to quake-struck Zinda Jan.
“Baradar’s urgent visit, therefore, reflected the Taliban’s desire to control and establish ownership over incoming aid streams from international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), as the latter have thus far avoided channeling their assistance resources through the Taliban government,” D’Souza said.
At the same time the MEI scholar said without engaging and working with the Taliban on capacity building, the situation will never improve.
“International isolation may have repeatedly exposed the Taliban’s incapacity to govern the country, but at the same time it has placed millions of Afghans at the mercy of persistent governance failures and brutality,” D’Souza wrote. “Only through constant engagement and the conditional provision of aid and assistance can the international community hope to gain some degree of leverage over the Taliban regime.”
It is quite a tightrope to walk – keep the Taliban out and the country remains forever reliant. Bring the Taliban in and funds are put at risk. One vicious cycle.