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As Afghanistan's harsh winter sets in, many are forced to choose between food and warmth
As Afghanistan’s harsh winter sets in, many are forced to choose between food and warmth
Link to tweet
As Afghanistan’s harsh winter sets in, many are forced to choose between food and warmth
The Taliban, cut off from most international aid, has scant resources to protect millions of vulnerable people from a full-fledged humanitarian disaster.
The Taliban, cut off from most international aid, has scant resources to protect millions of vulnerable people from a full-fledged humanitarian disaster.
Asia
As Afghanistan’s harsh winter sets in, many are forced to choose between food and warmth
By Pamela Constable
Yesterday at 2:14 p.m. EST
KABUL — The snow started falling early, prettily dusting trees and fences in the Afghan capital this week but turning unpaved neighborhood alleys into treacherous sludge. In many poor homes, the heat provided by used coal chips and wood scraps in old metal stoves had died long before daybreak.
Mahmad Ewaz, 28, a former tenant farmer and father of four who fled fighting in Helmand province two years ago, listened to his 1-year-old daughter coughing and contemplated a single log resting in the corner. The pantry in the family’s mud-walled home in west Kabul held only a few onions and potatoes, and the stove was dark. It was too cold for his boys to go out and scavenge, so he reached for the log and started shaving off pieces.
“The authorities tell us it is safe to return home now, but we have nothing left there,” Ewaz said with a sigh on Tuesday. Life in the city, though, has become much harder since the Taliban took power again in August. He earns less than a dollar a day, sewing soles onto shoes, and the cost of heating fuel has risen far beyond the family’s means. “At least this log will give us a few more hours tonight,” he said.
Beside a cold stove in their frigid two-room house in Kabul, a son of Mahmad Ewaz, a rural war refugee, tries to comfort his baby sister and keep her warm on Jan. 3. (Pamela Constable/The Washington Post)
The country’s new rulers, cut off from most international aid as well as Afghan government assets held in U.S. accounts, have scant resources to protect millions of vulnerable people against another harsh winter. Aid groups estimate that nearly 23 million Afghans, out of a total population of 39 million, already do not have enough to eat. Many also lack solid shelter and money to heat their homes at night, forcing them to choose between food and fuel, and creating additional potential for a full-fledged humanitarian disaster, aid officials said.
{snip}
By Pamela Constable
Pamela Constable is a staff writer for The Washington Post's foreign desk. She completed a tour as Afghanistan/Pakistan bureau chief in 2019, and has reported extensively from Latin America, South Asia and around the world since the 1980s. Twitter https://twitter.com/pamconstable1
As Afghanistan’s harsh winter sets in, many are forced to choose between food and warmth
By Pamela Constable
Yesterday at 2:14 p.m. EST
KABUL — The snow started falling early, prettily dusting trees and fences in the Afghan capital this week but turning unpaved neighborhood alleys into treacherous sludge. In many poor homes, the heat provided by used coal chips and wood scraps in old metal stoves had died long before daybreak.
Mahmad Ewaz, 28, a former tenant farmer and father of four who fled fighting in Helmand province two years ago, listened to his 1-year-old daughter coughing and contemplated a single log resting in the corner. The pantry in the family’s mud-walled home in west Kabul held only a few onions and potatoes, and the stove was dark. It was too cold for his boys to go out and scavenge, so he reached for the log and started shaving off pieces.
“The authorities tell us it is safe to return home now, but we have nothing left there,” Ewaz said with a sigh on Tuesday. Life in the city, though, has become much harder since the Taliban took power again in August. He earns less than a dollar a day, sewing soles onto shoes, and the cost of heating fuel has risen far beyond the family’s means. “At least this log will give us a few more hours tonight,” he said.
Beside a cold stove in their frigid two-room house in Kabul, a son of Mahmad Ewaz, a rural war refugee, tries to comfort his baby sister and keep her warm on Jan. 3. (Pamela Constable/The Washington Post)
The country’s new rulers, cut off from most international aid as well as Afghan government assets held in U.S. accounts, have scant resources to protect millions of vulnerable people against another harsh winter. Aid groups estimate that nearly 23 million Afghans, out of a total population of 39 million, already do not have enough to eat. Many also lack solid shelter and money to heat their homes at night, forcing them to choose between food and fuel, and creating additional potential for a full-fledged humanitarian disaster, aid officials said.
{snip}
By Pamela Constable
Pamela Constable is a staff writer for The Washington Post's foreign desk. She completed a tour as Afghanistan/Pakistan bureau chief in 2019, and has reported extensively from Latin America, South Asia and around the world since the 1980s. Twitter https://twitter.com/pamconstable1
