Sky Eclat
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 17, 2012
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After the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan last year, the Taliban regime took over but has not received international recognition. Afghans are now resorting to desperate measures to feed themselves as aid struggles to reach them.
By correspondent Alex Crawford, cameraman Jake Britton, and producers Chris Cunningham and Mark Grant
In our first few days in Herat, we've met whole families who've sold their kidneys so they can eat.
In one case, three brothers and their two sisters told us they flogged their organs for around £1,150 a piece to buy food for the rest of the family.
We've sat with a mother grieving over her toddler who starved to death. We've heard multiple parents tell us how they're now resorting to selling their children.
Yes, selling them.
And we've spoken to emotional doctors who tell us they can't afford even the dressings for infected wounds nor the basic tools to do life-saving operations.
This is Afghanistan post-pull out for foreign troops. This is the country in which a coalition of nations spent 20 years, shelling out billions of dollars to "rebuild it".
This is the nation where so many lives were sacrificed - thousands - both foreign troops and ordinary Afghans.
This is the part of the world which the United Nations now says is fast becoming the centre of the globe's worst humanitarian disaster.
Afghanistan was poor and in difficulties before the chaotic withdrawal of foreign troops last August.
Now, with the Taliban in power and the rest of the world still not officially recognising the legitimacy of their government, it's the Afghan people who're having to resort to ever more extreme measures to survive.
In a small village community outside Herat, we saw the desperation and desolation of poverty.
We're concealing the exact location of the village and protecting the identities of all the villagers who spoke to us for their own safety. Our arrival along with the village elder prompted streams of people to come out of their mud houses and tents.
Within minutes, old women were thrusting medical documents into our hands pleading with us for help while mothers clutching babies begged us for food.
By correspondent Alex Crawford, cameraman Jake Britton, and producers Chris Cunningham and Mark Grant
In our first few days in Herat, we've met whole families who've sold their kidneys so they can eat.
In one case, three brothers and their two sisters told us they flogged their organs for around £1,150 a piece to buy food for the rest of the family.
We've sat with a mother grieving over her toddler who starved to death. We've heard multiple parents tell us how they're now resorting to selling their children.
Yes, selling them.
And we've spoken to emotional doctors who tell us they can't afford even the dressings for infected wounds nor the basic tools to do life-saving operations.
This is Afghanistan post-pull out for foreign troops. This is the country in which a coalition of nations spent 20 years, shelling out billions of dollars to "rebuild it".
This is the nation where so many lives were sacrificed - thousands - both foreign troops and ordinary Afghans.
This is the part of the world which the United Nations now says is fast becoming the centre of the globe's worst humanitarian disaster.
Afghanistan was poor and in difficulties before the chaotic withdrawal of foreign troops last August.
Now, with the Taliban in power and the rest of the world still not officially recognising the legitimacy of their government, it's the Afghan people who're having to resort to ever more extreme measures to survive.
In a small village community outside Herat, we saw the desperation and desolation of poverty.
We're concealing the exact location of the village and protecting the identities of all the villagers who spoke to us for their own safety. Our arrival along with the village elder prompted streams of people to come out of their mud houses and tents.
Within minutes, old women were thrusting medical documents into our hands pleading with us for help while mothers clutching babies begged us for food.
