Afghan families sell their babies for $500

Couples from cities like Herat have chosen to trade their newborn babies for $500 in order to feed their older children.

The great humanitarian crisis in which Afghanistan entered with the arrival of the Taliban to power, has revealed the greatest miseries of human beings to guarantee their survival. Such is the case of some Afghan families who have chosen to sell their babies in order to buy food.

According to a BBC report, on the outskirts of the city of Herat, they have sold their nursing children for $500. Buyers pay in advance, as they wait for the infants to walk and thus take them away.

Among the testimonies is that of an Afghan woman, who did not want to reveal her identity. She said she sold her baby girl, who was just a few months old, because she had no money to feed her other children. The person who bought the girl, who has paid more than $500, promised to marry her to his son.

It seems somewhat inhumane that parents can make these decisions just to get a plate of food, yet their faces reveal their sadness and grief. They seem to have resigned themselves. It seems that they do not want to do it, but they have no other option, since not even those who lived on garbage can do it.

Another Afghan family in Baghlan province was forced to sell their son for a year and a half in order to pay for medical care for their sick 13-year-old daughter. Due to the poverty and displacement experienced by many families, Lailuma, as the woman was identified, had to move to a camp.

This situation seems to be repeated more and more in a nation that is waiting for the recognition of its government at the international level to be able to release the funds that have been frozen. Meanwhile, the Afghan people suffer the worst calamities in the world today.

In a hospital in the city of Herat, hundreds of children are hospitalized for malnutrition, many of them die every day, hospital doctors reveal.

Health crisis

Desperation is also experienced in hospitals in Afghan cities, and those who have suffered seriously are pregnant women, who suffer hardships when they go to give birth, such as giving birth without anesthesia, and buying their own medicines and supplies.

Currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Afghanistan has the infant maternal mortality rates in the world, at least 638 women die for every 100,000 babies born alive.

While the United States was in the territory since 2001, there was an improvement in maternal and neonatal care, but in the last two months the situation has worsened considerably in health centers.

Many will die

The United Nations (UN) has warned that millions of Afghans will die if the world does not do something to help the nation soon. There is no doubt that it is a humanitarian crisis, which has worsened since August, when the Taliban stormed power.

And the food crisis will continue to increase, since according to a report by the United Nations Group on Agriculture and Food Security of Afghanistan, at least 22.8 million people will suffer the onslaught of food insecurity that will worsen in November.

In fact, the most recent reports from the Afghan Social Services and Welfare Organization Ehsas indicate that the number of people registering for humanitarian assistance has increased. The figure has increased by 70%.

Soft responses from the Taliban

It should be noted that before the arrival of the Taliban to the government, Afghanistan was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis, which affected 18 million people, however, with the arrival of these to power the problem intensified and accelerated by leaps and bounds.

But in addition to the food and health problems faced by the population, the economic situation is intensifying more and more.

Afghans are able to withdraw $200 a week from their bank accounts, the local currency is devaluing more and more every day, basic services are running less and less, jobs have declined, and women have had to stop doing housework and abandon their jobs, for fear that the Taliban will punish them for doing jobs that are the sole responsibility of men.

As the country collapses, since the withdrawal of US troops and international missions, the Taliban government has not stood idly by.

They have taken actions, such as distributing 66 thousand tons of wheat through a program that they have implemented to help the families that need it most.

However, when it comes to salaries, the Taliban have not yet paid the 500,000 employees of the public administration, and in their defense, they allege that it is all due to the suspension of international funds.