As per UN reports, Nearly 23 million people are in the grip of acute food crisis while 2 million of them face emergency-level starvation. Hospitals are flooded with people, including women and children, with extreme malnourishment while hospitals have run out of medical supplies and a majority of the 50% of women healthcare workers are too scared of the Taliban’s diktats to report to work.

Throughout December, prominent international media outlets such as CNN and New York Times have reported about the evolving food crisis in Afghanistan due to the failure of the winter crop. Their coverage comes with warnings that the content may have potentially disturbing visuals — referring to the pictures of malnourished children lying helplessly on hospital beds.

In a good year, Afghanistan produces enough food grain to meet the domestic requirements. It even has a surplus to export. The main crops are wheat, rice, and barley.

After the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan is facing UN sanctions and its assets worth about $10 billion have been frozen across the world. International humanitarian aid reaching Afghanistan is being distributed through aid agencies. These aids completely bypass the country’s banking system and work directly with voluntary organizations. As the world seems to stand united in not doing business with the Taliban, the food crisis doesn’t seem to have an immediate solution and may continue until March when the new crop is likely available in the market. But by then, the country’s economy may further slide into chaos making the food grains available to only those who are close to the Taliban.

Noted Girls’ Education Rights activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has tweeted about the Afghan food crisis almost every day during the last month. But her focus seems to be more towards what the US or OIC is doing, not about what Pakistan or China is not doing.

As millions face acute hunger in the punishing winter of this landlocked country, no relief has come from the US or the OIC. Malala’s otherwise resonant and defiant note is missing this time around. Perhaps, she can’t stay away from the power centres in Pakistan which have chosen to side with the Taliban. Is Pakistan jealous of Afghanistan?

The war-ravaged snow-capped Afghanistan always had a natural claim to be the Shangri La of this region — a potential seat of UN headquarters.

But the Shangri La has been a victim of evil forces. It has been wounded and aggrieved. But now, it’s testing our sensibility in the cruellest way it can. And the time has come when countries in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood must act without losing any single moment. Activism is a choice of the enlightened, not privileged club of power-seekers.

In the second week of December 2021, India returned a Kam Air flight that evacuated some Indian and Afghanistan nationals from Kabul with life-saving medicines and Covid-19 vaccines. That was the second humanitarian assistance from India to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover brought about a rapid change in protocols due to the UN sanctions.

But India’s efforts to transport 50,000 tons of wheat are still a non-starter due to Pakistan’s non-cooperation. The snapping of trade relations between India and Pakistan 3 years ago has destroyed the systems and processes to transport goods from India to Afghanistan through the Wagah border and Pakistan. This is the shortest and easiest route to send goods to Afghanistan from India. Despite committing to putting the systems back in place, Pakistan has backed out. Now, Iran has offered to help India transport the wheat to Afghanistan.

When a globe-trotter socialite politician Imran Khan became the prime minister of Pakistan, the world expected the country would embark on a path of pragmatism and modern thinking. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In the first 15 days of the New Year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has visited five countries. Maintaining a 3-decade tradition, the Chinese foreign minister spent his New Year in Africa. In a five-nation tour, he visited Eritrea, Kenya, Comoros, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, where he said no third country should interfere in the relationship between Sri Lanka and China.

China was the first country to accept the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka is another country in the region where a food crisis is spiralling out of control.

Like 67-year-old Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar, 68-year-old Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi has grown through the ranks as a career diplomat.

If China doesn't respond to Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis immediately, it will be impossible to defend its engagements with the Taliban.

Ideas like China's interest in Afghanistan is due to its $3 trillion mineral reserves, a big chunk of which is lithium and rare earth, will get more ground. The perception that China favors the Taliban because of its weaknesses in Xinxiang will get a boost.

Is there a call of conscience here? Jaishankar and Wang must explain their stands. (IPA Service)