Boris Johnson defends Joe Biden's handling of Afghanistan
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The incendiary claim was made by a barrister who goes by the Twitter username Crime Girl, who cited as evidence comments on the situation by a resident of the country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned more than one million Afghan children’s lives are at risk this winter as a result of food shortages and plunging temperatures.
The Taliban is now in total control of Afghanistan after the West’s chaotic pullout in August, with the last US troops leaving on August 29 on the orders of President Joe Biden.
Twin suicide bombs close to Kabul’s airport claimed the lives of scores of people, including 13 US soldiers, in an attack which was subsequently claimed by the organisation calling itself ISIS-K.
Crime Girl warned the situation was now spiralling dangerously out of control – with implications well beyond the country’s borders.
She tweeted: “By letting the Taliban take over Afghanistan and then starving the country of aid because of who they are, we are funding and enabling the growth of ISIS
“Listen to an Afghan if you won’t listen to me.”
She then shared a series of remarks, likely gleaned from an encrypted message service.
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“Non-Pashtun tali’s have defected to Daesh.”
The poster added: “Middle class is starving. Now the Pashtun Taliban are defecting to Daesh.
“There are fears the special forces will eventually also.
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“As Daesh are the only ones with money at the moment.”
Roughly 3.2 million children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in Afghanistan by the end of this year, with one million of them at risk of dying as temperatures drop, the WHO’s Margaret Harris said on Friday.
Aid agencies have warned of famine as a drought coincides with a failing economy following the withdrawal of Western financial support in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover.
The health sector has been hit especially hard, with many healthcare workers fleeing due to unpaid salaries.
Ms Harris said: “It’s an uphill battle as starvation grips the country.
“The world must not and cannot afford to turn its back on Afghanistan.”
Nighttime temperatures are falling below zero degrees Celsius and colder temperatures are expected to make the old and the young more susceptible to other diseases, Ms Harris said.
In some places, people are chopping down trees to provide fuel for the hospitals amid widespread shortages, she added.
Ms Harris did not have numbers for the number of children who had already died from malnutrition but described “wards filled with tiny little children”, including with a seven-month-old baby whom she described as “smaller than a newborn”.
Measles cases are rising in the country and WHO data shows 24,000 clinical cases had so far been reported.
She added: “For malnourished children, measles is a death sentence. We will see so many more deaths if we don’t move on this quickly.”
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