US STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT CRITICAL OF THE US WITHDRAWAL CAUSES A FUROR IN WASHINGTON DC – The unclassified and heavily redacted version of the report was released on Friday and immediately caused an uproar among the two main political parties. The report blames a lack of planning and communication from both administrations and then went on to list its own failures, some of which have yet to be rectified, before making 11 recommendations to avoid future problems. The report was based on interviews with over 150 State Department personnel which will lead many to question the document. Unsurprisingly, the recommendations call for increased budgetary allocations to remedy the shortcomings illustrated so painfully in late 2021. Congress is scheduled to see the classified version of the report soon.
THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME IN AFGHANISTAN WARNS IT WILL RUN OUT OF FUNDING BY THE END OF OCTOBER – The Director for the WFP in Afghanistan said that her agency had already trimmed food and cash assistance from 8 million needy Afghans to 5 million ‘most at risk’ Afghans. Much of the problem has to do with donor states withholding promised contributions. It is believed that many nations are unwilling to support humanitarian efforts with the gender bans in place. The agency says it needs $1 billion dollars to continue operations until March 2024.
RECENT LOCUST INVASION CALLED A ‘TICKING TIME BOMB’ FOR 2024 GROWING SEASON –
Let them eat insects — by all reports an excellent, and free, source of protein.
The arrival of the Moroccan locusts in Afghanistan last March (the first in 20 years) has left a lingering problem that could further decimate domestic food production into 2024. Entomologists say the locusts left billions of eggs which will hatch next Spring and wreak more havoc on an agricultural sector suffering from drought and a sputtering economy. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the invasion in 2023 was mitigated by the fact the swarms were mating. That concerns farmers for 2024 as historically, a mating swarm produces roughly 10 times the number in the following year. The last major invasion (1981) resulted in the loss of approximately one-quarter of the harvest. There is talk of a pesticide ‘spraying campaign’ but current rules of the FAO do not allow it to fund such projects. Only government agencies can conduct programs like the one being contemplated now. Eventually, it looks as though the funding will need to be given to the Taliban directly in order to limit the problem next year.
THE TALIBAN FIRE BACK AT THE RECENT GLOBAL PEACE INDEX REPORT, CALLS THE REPORT ‘UNJUST’ – The Institute for Economics and Peace report placed Afghanistan dead last in its recent index for 2022. Afghanistan has held this position for the past five years. Unsurprisingly, the Taliban took umbrage with the report and claimed the data used in the report was incorrect. The report actually showed some improvements over the previous year but the Taliban have flatly rejected the report and a spokesman threw out wildly inaccurate numbers to try and blunt the criticisms.