Jobs lost, middle-class Afghans slide into poverty, hunger

Kabul, November 22

Not long ago, Ferishta Salihi had enough for a decent life. Her husband was working and earned a good salary. She could send several of her daughters to private schools.

But now, after her husband lost his job following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she was lined up with hundreds of other Afghans, registering with the UN’s World Food Programme to receive food and cash that her family needs just for survival.

In a matter of months as Afghanistan’s economy craters, many stable, middle-class families like Salihi’s have plummeted into desperation, uncertain of how they will pay for their next meal. That is one reason the United Nations is raising alarm over a hunger crisis, with 22 per cent of the population of 38 million already near famine and another 36 per cent facing acute food insecurity, mainly because people can’t afford food. The economy was already in trouble under the previous, US-backed government, which often could not pay its employees. The situation was worsened by Covid and by a punishing drought that drove up food prices. Already in 2020, nearly half of Afghanistan’s population was living in poverty. Then the world’s shutdown of funding to Afghanistan after the Taliban’s seizure of power pulled the rug out from under the country’s small middle class. — AP

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