According to media reports, Afghanistan’s central bank has said it will sell $10 million through an auction to banks and foreign exchange dealers as it seeks to support the afghani currency from a sharp fall in recent days. This development clearly indicates that Afghanistan is in throes of a severe economic crisis owing to a variety of factors. The principal factor is the US government’s decision to freeze this landlocked country’s $9 billion foreign exchange reserves that had been held outside the country. The US appears to be exacting its revenge in a highly controversial manner: it seeks to accomplish the economic strangling of Afghanistan in a matter of weeks or months; signs of which are quite visible as the country is nearing a mega humanitarian crisis. Conflict, Covid-19 and draught have caused millions of Afghans to face food insecurity. The question is: what the United Nations is doing? Unfortunately, it is doing nothing to help avert this looming crisis.

Nargis Jahan (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021