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Western Sanctions against Afghanistan: Punishing the Poor

by Kai Pflug

Before the Taliban took over the Afghan government 2 years ago, Afghanistan received about $8 billion USD in external aid per year. Most of this funding vanished afterwards. To make matters worse, the USA also froze about $7 billion of Afghanistan’s assets (another about $2 billion are frozen by a number of other countries including Germany) – an amount equivalent to about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s annual economy, and a vital resource to pay for imports of items such as food and medicine.

Now, the idea behind such sanctions is clear – to put pressure on the Taliban, hurt their leaders and prevent them from stabilizing their rule. But does it work?

Given the power structure in Afghanistan, it is hopelessly naïve to think that any ruling government figures will face sacrifices because of these sanctions, particularly as they are the least likely to really be hurt by sanctions. 

Instead, the parties who will suffer are Afghanistan’s poor. Of which there are many, and they are already suffering without such sanctions. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 2023, 28.3 million people, or two thirds of Afghanistan’s population, will need urgent humanitarian assistance in order to survive.

The Western sanctions also hinder economic development which could counteract a worsening of economic conditions. One European bank reportedly needed 40-50 staff members to facilitate a single financial transaction to Afghanistan – not the kind of condition in which any meaningful development can take place.

Of course, calling for the lifting of sanctions may sound like an obvious statement from somebody like me who supports Afghanistan via an NGO. But other, less biased parties have called for similar actions. For example, about 50 members of the US Congress sent a letter to President Biden stating that the U.S. confiscation of Afghanistan’s currency reserves is plunging the country deeper into economic and humanitarian crisis. 

And a group of more than 70 economists including some Nobel Prize winners stated that the United States could not justify holding onto the reserves, arguing that the Afghan central bank cannot fulfil its functions without access to these reserves, leading to a collapse in the Afghan economy.

So, in conclusion: keep up the sanctions only if you want poor Afghans to starve. 

Originally posted 2024-03-16 14:23:02.