No time to lose to help Afghans, envoy says

As the Afghan population is "experiencing a humanitarian crisis of the worst kind", China's ambassador to the United Nations urged the international community on Wednesday to prioritize helping the war-torn country alleviate its humanitarian crisis and stabilize its economy.

"Unfortunately, without massive emergency action, it looks like we will lose" a race against time to help the Afghan people, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, during a Security Council briefing on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

The hasty withdrawal of foreign troops last August caused the Afghan economy to go into free-fall, Zhang said. The envoy pointed out that 95 percent of Afghan families do not have enough food.

Severe famine

More than 1 million children are suffering from malnutrition, and 23 million people are suffering from severe famine. At this rate, 97 percent of the Afghan population will be impoverished and will not be able to afford to live on $2 a day by the middle of the year.

The council adopted Resolution 2615 last month, affirming that humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan does not violate the council's sanction measures, clearing any legal obstacles that may exist.

"Unfortunately, there has been no fundamental change in the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan," he said.

Zhang emphasized that the key issue is not a legal obstacle, but a political one.

"It's the politicization of the humanitarian issue. Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip, a political tool and the leverage," he said. "This is playing games with the lives and well-being of 38 million Afghans, who are in dire need of relief. This is morally unacceptable and strategically shortsighted and dangerous."

Zhang stressed that the more fundamental challenge facing Afghans and international humanitarian agencies is that the economy has not yet returned to normal functioning.

Unilateral coercive measures have not only frozen more than $9 billion of Afghan assets abroad, but also severely hindered Afghanistan's access to international financing, leading to a liquidity crunch and stifling Afghanistan's potential to resume economic development on its own.

"China welcomes the efforts of the World Bank and other international institutions to explore financing support for Afghanistan. But without a full injection of liquidity, the restoration and development of the domestic market and foreign trade, the efforts of international institutions will only be a drop in the bucket," he said.

Zhang said the international community at present should make it the most important and urgent priority to help Afghanistan alleviate its humanitarian crisis and stabilize its economy.