Aid organisations have urged the UK not to “abandon” Afghanistan as Western allies mark two years since the Taliban retook Kabul.
The Taliban, in a lightning offensive across the country, returned to power in Afghanistan on August 15 2021 as Western forces, including Britain and the US, hurriedly made their withdrawal after a 20-year occupation.
Operation Pitting was the largest evacuation effort Britain has been involved in since the Second World War, with more than 15,000 people taken from Afghanistan to the UK in just over 16 days in August 2021.
Bond, an umbrella body in the UK representing international development organisations, said the Afghan people had been living “in a waking nightmare” since the return of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
The organisation said more than 80% of the population in the central Asian country is living below the poverty line “as the economy continues to contract, jobs vanish and government services crumble”.
Gideon Rabinowitz, Bond’s policy and advocacy director, said: “Families have been plunged into poverty, malnutrition threatens over a million children as food insecurity engulfs the country, and the dreams of millions of women and girls have been shattered as they endure tight restrictions on their freedoms.
“The UK and the international community must not abandon Afghanistan. Our support cannot end because troops left.
“We urge the UK Government to stay engaged via civil groups on the ground and diplomatic pragmatism while maintaining its commitments to promised UK aid funding and refugee resettlement.”
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