Photo for representation. AFP
New Delhi: Donor organisations have suspended the budget for at least 40 COVID-19 hospitals in Afghanistan over the past 18 months after political developments in the country, said Health Minister Qalandar Ebad.
According to a report in Tolo News, Ebad added, “The suspension of the budget and restrictions on health projects have affected health services in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, officials from Afghan-Japan Hospital, which mainly provides health services to COVID-19 patients, said they have not been paid for the past five months.
“All staff members of this hospital have not been paid and no one is taking responsibility for this,” said Shirin Agha Naseri, a doctor.
The hospital’s predicament is a symptom of the crisis in Afghanistan’s health care system, which is on the brink of collapse and able to function only with a lifeline from aid organizations.
How political developments affected the health system
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 amid a chaotic U.S. and NATO troop withdrawal, the international community pulled all funding and froze billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s assets abroad. For a country heavily dependent on foreign aid, the consequences have been devastating.
The economy already was deeply troubled under the previous government, with state employees often going unpaid. In 2020, almost half the population was living in poverty, with the situation made worse by the pandemic and a drought that has driven up food prices.
The Taliban government wants the international community to ease sanctions and release Afghanistan’s assets abroad so it can pay civil servants, including doctors and teachers.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has sounded the alarm over a hunger crisis, with 22% of Afghanistan’s 38 million people near famine and another 36% facing acute food insecurity.
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