RASC News Agency: Local sources in Kabul have confirmed the suicide of a young man, Nisar Ahmad, in District 15 of the capital. His death marks yet another tragic chapter in a growing series of suicides linked to Afghanistan’s deepening economic collapse an implosion that has accelerated under the Taliban’s draconian rule. According to residents familiar with the case, Nisar Ahmad had been struggling with relentless financial pressures and the unbearable weight of poverty pressures that ultimately drove him to take his own life. This is not an isolated incident but a grim reflection of a broader national crisis, one that has spiraled since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. Once again, it is the country’s youth the very generation that once held the promise of rebuilding Afghanistan who are paying the ultimate price for a regime that has neither the will nor the capacity to govern responsibly.
Afghanistan’s economy, already fragile before the Taliban’s resurgence, has now collapsed into freefall. Unemployment has reached historic highs. A staggering number of young people, deprived of any semblance of opportunity or future, now face chronic despair, psychological trauma, and an overwhelming sense of abandonment. With state institutions hollowed out and international aid dramatically reduced, basic livelihoods have vanished. As a result, suicide is increasingly seen as a tragic escape from a life stripped of dignity, prospects, and hope. Nisar Ahmad’s death is emblematic of a much larger social catastrophe. Across the country, suicides are rising especially among young men and women who see no way out of the crushing economic and social pressures bearing down on them. This alarming trend is a direct consequence of a regime that has not only failed to offer solutions but has actively dismantled the fragile economic and administrative structures that once offered a lifeline to Afghanistani citizens.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Afghanistani citizens have been forced into exile, seeking refuge in neighboring countries not out of choice, but out of desperation. For many, this journey proves fatal. Numerous migrants have been shot and killed while attempting unauthorized crossings at heavily guarded borders. Others endure abuse, detention, or exploitation in foreign lands. The act of fleeing Afghanistan, once an escape route, has itself become a humanitarian crisis marked by death, despair, and systemic violence. The Taliban, far from addressing the economic meltdown, have exacerbated it. Their policies have alienated donors, paralyzed the private sector, and led to mass purges of experienced professionals who served in previous administrations. Skilled civil servants, educators, doctors, engineers, and women professionals have been systematically dismissed, silenced, or driven out of the country. These reckless acts have not only deprived millions of essential services but have also gutted the country’s institutional capacity.
Today, Afghanistan ranks among the poorest and most jobless nations on the planet a direct result of the Taliban’s ideological rigidity, economic mismanagement, and authoritarian repression. But the statistics do not fully capture the human cost. Behind each number is a story like that of Nisar Ahmad: a young life extinguished in silence, a future erased under the weight of despair. Equally alarming is the mental health toll. The psychological crisis sweeping across Afghanistan remains largely invisible, yet its impact is devastating. Young people are particularly vulnerable, trapped in a society where opportunities are vanishing, freedoms are curtailed, and hope is treated as a subversive act. Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan’s youth have been robbed not only of employment and education but of meaning.
The country’s downward spiral shows no sign of abating. In the absence of meaningful reforms, international engagement, or even a basic governance framework, the Taliban’s Afghanistan is lurching from one catastrophe to the next. Each suicide, each crossing, each death is a silent indictment of a regime that continues to fail its people at every level. Nisar Ahmad’s story is not an anomaly it is a warning. And unless urgent action is taken by the international community and regional actors alike, Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis will deepen further, with even more lives lost to violence, neglect, and despair.
