RASC News Agency: The European Union’s Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) has once again sounded the alarm on the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan, warning that the country remains engulfed in one of the most severe crises on the planet. Despite repeated calls for global attention and humanitarian coordination, the situation has only deteriorated driven in large part by the Taliban’s regressive policies, systemic gender apartheid, and economic mismanagement. According to DG ECHO’s latest assessment for 2024, an estimated 23.7 million Afghanistani citizens are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance nearly 60 percent of the population. The European agency underscored that women, girls, and children remain the most vulnerable, as their access to education, healthcare, employment, and basic freedoms has been virtually erased under Taliban rule.
In a video message released on the platform X, EU officials expressed grave concern over the mass forced return of Afghanistani refugees from neighboring countries, particularly Iran and Pakistan. These returnees many of them women-led households are arriving in Afghanistan with nothing but the clothes on their backs, only to face a regime that offers neither security nor basic services. A DG ECHO staff member stationed in Kabul revealed that more than 4.8 million people face the risk of forced deportation, warning that hundreds of families are being sent back every day into an environment of deepening destitution, repression, and lawlessness. “These families are returning to a country where the social contract is broken, rights are non-existent, and survival has become a daily struggle,” the official said.
Beyond the migration crisis, the European Union drew particular attention to the Taliban’s intensifying restrictions on women and girls, describing them as “systemic and punitive.” Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed a near-total ban on female education, barred women from working in NGOs and public institutions, and enforced medieval codes of conduct that effectively exclude women from public life. The EU emphasized that a significant portion of its humanitarian funding is now being directed specifically toward female-centered aid programs designed to reach women and girls who have been rendered invisible under Taliban governance. These programs include mobile health units, discreet education services, food support, and mental health aid tailored for women traumatized by the regime’s policies.
The United Nations has classified Afghanistan among the 15 worst countries globally for child malnutrition. Recent reports indicate that over 40 percent of women in Afghanistan are suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition, a figure that is likely underreported due to the Taliban’s refusal to allow independent humanitarian monitoring. In a rare joint statement, five UN agencies including UNICEF and the World Health Organization urged the international community to act urgently to prevent a large-scale nutritional collapse. The agencies warned that if left unaddressed, the current conditions could lead to mass starvation, particularly among infants and pregnant women.
Despite contributing over €1.8 billion in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan since 1994, and €160 million in 2024 alone, the European Union cautioned that aid alone cannot offset the structural failures imposed by Taliban rule. This year’s support includes emergency food aid, clean water provision, demining efforts, and the deployment of temporary health facilities across impoverished regions. Additionally, the EU has committed €146 million in supplementary support for programs aimed at safeguarding the livelihoods of women, returnees, and non-Pashtun ethnic groups communities that have been disproportionately marginalized and persecuted under Taliban governance.
Nevertheless, Brussels issued a clear warning: “The worst may still be ahead.” Without a unified international strategy that addresses not only humanitarian needs but also the Taliban’s political illegitimacy and human rights abuses, Afghanistan risks spiraling further into state-sanctioned oppression, gender-based violence, and extreme poverty. “The world must recognize that Afghanistan’s crisis is not merely the result of poverty or drought it is the product of systematic exclusion, failed leadership, and authoritarian rule,” a senior EU official stated. “Until the Taliban are held accountable for the collapse they have engineered, humanitarian efforts will remain a lifeline, but never a solution.”
