Sayyed Muhammad and his son stood in front of their broken house. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
The end of this summer's war is a great consolation for farmers like Sayyed Muhammad. That means he and his family can return to their home in Mahal, a war-torn agricultural city in southern Helmand province, after six years of displacement.
"This is the first time I've been home in six years." Seventy-year-old Muhammad said.
But the sight that greeted them a few weeks ago was a ruined wall. The rear of the entire house was devastated by its proximity to a military base, turning it into an empty shell of rubble.
As the Taliban's clashes with former government forces intensified here, much of Maha's residents have been forcibly displaced over the past decade, scarred by nearly all of the city's buildings.
Muhammad, along with his wife and six children, currently lives in the only room in the home that still has a roof over, using plastic sheets to cover holes in the walls. "Although we reinstalled the gate, it was still very cold at night," he said. ”
Like the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons who have returned to Helmand or other former war zones in Afghanistan, he is facing a bigger challenge than rebuilding his house: feeding his family.
"Sometimes we have vegetables, but most of the time the food we live on is bread and tea," he says, "and all the kids are hungry." ”
Thirteen-year-old Abdou Wado stood in front of his broken home. His father, Sayyed Muhamud, and his mother and five siblings returned to their hometown of Maha after six years of displacement, ready to rebuild. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
Others who live in this dilapidated city have similar stories. Many families cannot afford to buy enough food, and people like Muhammad who have just returned home must pray that the current drought will ease next spring and then start farming. The maha crisis is a microcosm of the whole of Afghanistan. The FOOD And Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns that only two percent of the country's population has adequate food, and more than half of children under the age of five are at risk of severe malnutrition.
As a recently returned internally displaced person, Dr. Muhamud Anwa sees more malnourished children every week in his small private clinic in Maha. "The baby who was brought to me weighed half the normal value." He said. He estimates that at least two thousand children in Maha are severely malnourished and dying.
Food shortages plague Afghanistan's impoverished rural areas all year round. While outside donations have provided some support, the former Afghan government remains unable to eradicate the problem. Without foreign government aid for salaries, a crippling banking system subject to economic sanctions, a worsening drought, mutilated crops and pastures – multiple challenges make the situation even more difficult.
To repair homes and buy food, many internally displaced people have had to borrow money and become heavily indebted after returning to Maha or other former war zones. Sayyed Muhammad said he had borrowed at least fifty thousand afghan afghanis (about $500) from shopkeepers and other creditors. "I need food. I need cash, but so far, no one has reached out to us. ”
In the Boland district of Helmand (near the city of Rush Calgar), children take temporary refuge in what little remains. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
Muhamud Sadic, assistant liaison officer for the UN refugee agency's Helmand office, said there were signs that there would be more cases of malnutrition in all the areas hit hard by the war.
"If the situation continues throughout the winter, most of the families in Helmand will fall into unprecedented poverty and even die."
UNHCR is actively working with local partners to provide critical assistance to more than 22,000 newly returned families in Helmand. UNHCR's priority is to help them weather the harsh winter warmly, while supporting them in repairing their homes and reintegrating into their communities.
The United Nations and all its affiliates released a $4.04 billion response plan for Afghanistan's humanitarian needs on January 11. Once funded, the program will expand aid to provide more people with food and agricultural support, health services, emergency shelters, and water and sanitation resources.
Dr Anwa said the main factor contributing to the large number of malnutrition in children is that there is not enough food for mothers to eat. "Mothers don't get enough protein, so they can't feed their children adequately." The shortage of clean water is also a cause, he added, exacerbated by the raging drought.
In such a fragile state, malnourished children are at higher risk of disease and are more likely to deteriorate rapidly or die. Most children lack warm clothing to cope with sub-zero temperatures. "Some malnourished children have pneumonia." Dr. Anva said.
In the barren and dry Helmand, the terrible consequences of drought can be seen everywhere. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
The devastating consequences of drought are everywhere. The aqueduct had dried up, and the salt crystals formed a hard shell that covered a large area of land. To grow opium as a raw material for heroin, solar pumps draw large amounts of groundwater, making the groundwater table lower and the soil drier, leaving salt crystal residues behind, making it more difficult to grow other legal crops.
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All the young people are leaving
The start of the new year brought long-lost rain, but the ferocity of the situation led to sudden flooding in Helmand and the neighboring Kandahar region, which washed away many houses and farmland. The flood only temporarily alleviated the drought, and most of the precipitation was not retained.
"Once the floods are completely gone, we need to go to Iran or Pakistan." Fazer Muhamud, another citizen who experienced internal displacement and returned to Maha in November, said. "Or we'll just dig a grave for ourselves."
Many have already set off – no longer to flee the war, but to escape the double whammy of climate change and the economic crisis. "All the young people are leaving," said UNHCR's Sadic, "what can they do?" ”
*For protection purposes, all names are pseudonyms.