RASC News Agency: The obstruction of the Taliban group in assisting the earthquake victims of Herat has resulted in the cold weather of Herat claiming the lives of children and elderly people living in tents. Some of the earthquake victims in Herat province state that the Taliban group has halted the direct assistance process from local and foreign organizations for some time now, in order to personally benefit from the aid sent to the needy. They do not allow local and international relief organizations to distribute aid to the people in need. According to information provided by local sources in Herat to the RASC News Agency, in the past two weeks alone, ten earthquake victims from this province, who spend their days and nights under tents due to the destruction of their homes, have lost their lives due to the cold weather and hunger in the city of Herat and the Zindajan district of this province. Among the victims were six young children, three elderly women, and one man.
According to sources, the local authorities of the Taliban group in this province have not allowed local and foreign relief organizations to provide assistance to the earthquake victims who are in dire need of help in this cold season. As a result, every day, children and elderly people lose their lives due to the cold and hunger. The Herat earthquake victims also claim that the Taliban group has warned local and foreign relief organizations not to distribute their aid packages, including money and food, to the needy without coordination with their authorities. According to them, all the aid materials provided by them are given to this group, which then distributes them to the needy.
Due to the Taliban group’s misappropriation of the aid sent to the earthquake victims after the devastating earthquakes, relief organizations no longer trust them and have suspended the process of helping the needy people. This has resulted in daily casualties among the homeless population in this province. Meanwhile, an official from a charity organization in Kabul, using the alias “Shabir Ahmad Behzad,” said that their organization, in collaboration with Afghanistani traders and citizens outside the country, had brought eight million Kabul rupees, (the local currency), to Herat province, along with food packages, for distribution to the earthquake victims. However, the Taliban group took the money from them and claimed that they would distribute it themselves to the needy individuals in this province.
On the other hand, a civil activist from Herat city told RASC News Agency that the local authorities of the Taliban group in Herat province obstructed the aid packages sent by Iran for the earthquake-affected people. They prevented the distribution of these packages, which were supposed to be distributed to the people by the relevant organization, and transferred the trucks filled with aid packages to the headquarters of Herat province. They told them that they would distribute the materials themselves to those in need. But after the return of the Iranian relief team, they took all the materials and did not distribute any amount to the needy.
The Taliban group, in their pursuit of power and personal gain, have halted the distribution of humanitarian aid intended for the earthquake victims in Herat. As a result, the affected people of this province are forced to live under tents without access to food and shelter. Each day, some of them succumb to the severity of hunger, lack of medication, or the bitter cold.
The earthquake survivors in Herat expressed concerns over the Taliban group obstructing the distribution of aid from various assisting organizations. Local sources had previously reported that members of Taliban families in this province had been informed about foreign organizations supplying relief packages through video footage. In the footage sent by the affected individuals to the RASC news agency, it is still evident that the Taliban group is distributing some of the aid materials to the districts of “Pashton Zarghun” and “Shindand” in the province of Herat, where the residents have not suffered any damage from the recent earthquakes. According to the residents of Herat, local Taliban authorities in the province are primarily focused on distributing food and monetary aid to the earthquake victims in these two Pushton-majority districts. This shows their biased approach in favor of these areas.
