Afghan Economy Nears Collapse
By Christina Goldbaum
In the capital, desperate families have hawked furniture on the side of the road in exchange for food. Across other major cities, public hospitals do not have the money to buy badly needed medical supplies or to pay doctors and nurses, some of who have left their posts. Rural clinics are overrun with feeble children, whose parents cannot afford food. Economic migrants have flocked to the Iranian and Pakistani borders...
For years, day laborers have gathered there to pick up work digging wells, irrigating fields of cotton and grain, or doing construction around the city. The pay was modest — a couple dollars a day — but enough to buy food for their families and pay other small bills. These days, though, the men stay at the square until sunset hoping for even one day of work a week. Most cannot even afford to buy bread during lunch...
In a malnutrition ward of a hospital in southern Afghanistan, Shukria, 40, sat with her 1-year-old grandson, Mahtab, his mouth craned open but body too weak to let out a cry.
For weeks, the boy’s father had come home empty-handed from his mechanic shop as business dried up, and the family resorted to bread and tea for every meal.
www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/asia/afghanistan-economy-collapse-sanctions.html
afghanistanpeacecampaign.org/2021/11/27/afghan-economy-nears-collapse-as-pressure-builds-to-ease-u-s-sanctions/