Let's start with how almost everybody in
Afghanistan, 95%,
don't have enough food to eat. More than
half the population are at risk of
starvation—that's 23 million people—and it
includes 3 million children under
the age of 5.
Poverty, hunger and tough winters are
nothing new in Afghanistan.
But right now two things are making the
food crisis so much worse. First, there's
a terrible drought.
And second, there's the state of the
economy.
So what happened was when the
Taliban took over, the U.S. froze more
than $9 billion
of Afghan assets—that's basically money
and investments held in the U.S.
At the same time foreign financial aid
was also cut pretty much overnight.
Now you have to realise that under the
old government 75% of its budget was
foreign aid. And that money's just not
there anymore.
So the U.S. and others don't want the
Taliban to get their hands on any of
this money. But it's crippled the economy.
One of the big problems is a major
shortage of cash in a country that runs
on cash. The banks don't have enough and
have set limits on withdrawals.
And everything's getting more expensive,
especially imports like fuel, because the
currency, the afghani, has dropped to an
all-time low against the dollar.
From civil servants to construction
workers, people just aren't getting paid.
Not a single country has
officially recognised the Taliban
government, but the Afghan people are
also hurting from this isolation. The U.N.
and other international aid agencies are
still working in Afghanistan to deliver
food and supplies. That's the main way
help is getting to the Afghan people
right now. But Afghanistan needs so much
more than just emergency aid. It needs to
be able to trade like any other country.
So, who are the leaders? Well, they've named
an interim government made up entirely
of senior Taliban members.
Muhammad Hasan Akhund—he's the acting prime
minister and is on a U.N. sanctions list.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who's designated a
terrorist by the U.S., is the interior
minister. And Muhammad Yaqoob, the son of
the Taliban's founder, is the defence
minister. There's also the Taliban's
supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has
ultimate authority over the group. But
he's rarely seen in public.
So who's really in charge, and what their
plans are—it's just not very clear.
And there's also
confusion about what the new social
codes are, which so many people were
worried about when the Taliban came to
power.
The leadership have said that people's
rights will be protected in accordance
with Islamic law—at least their version
of it.
The problem is they haven't really specified
what they mean by that. All we know is
what's happening on the ground. And
what's happening on the ground is a
mixed picture.
In Herat, Taliban
officials killed four alleged kidnappers
and hung their bodies up in public. And
in Kabul, two journalists were beaten
when covering protests led by women.
And what about the situation for women?
Well, there have definitely been changes.
The Women's Affairs Ministry is now the
Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice. Female aid workers
have been restricted from doing their
jobs in more than 30 provinces.
Women are mostly back at university, but
they have to study separately from men.
And there are even fewer answers for
teenage girls. In most provinces they
haven't been allowed to return to school.
The Taliban say that's temporary, but
there's scepticism.
OK, so what about security? Because
that's something the Taliban said they
can handle.
But they haven't quite been able to deliver
on that because an affiliate of ISIL—a
group known as ISKP—has stepped up
attacks since the Taliban took over.
There was a suicide bombing at Kabul's
international airport that killed more
than 180 people. Another attack at a
military hospital killed 25.
And ISKP have claimed responsibility for
at least two attacks on Shia mosques
where dozens were killed.
Now remember, it wasn't very long ago
that the Taliban were the ones carrying
out attacks.
So one of the big challenges for the new
government is how to navigate this kind
of role reversal.
The Taliban, though, say it's still
early days.
Thing is, right now Afghans don't have
time. Their lives are at stake and after
100 days with the Taliban in
charge, there are still so many questions
about Afghanistan's future. Questions
that the Taliban need to answer, but
plenty of others that the U.S. and the
international community need to answer,
too.
If you want to know more about how
Afghanistan got here, you can watch our
episode on how the Taliban took Kabul
right here. Also make sure to subscribe
to this YouTube channel so you don't
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