Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that the world has “days, if not hours” to save the starving people of Afghanistan.
Some 23 million Afghans face hunger as winter sweeps in. Desperate parents are selling babies while others are handing their teenage daughters to the Taliban for cash.
The economy has collapsed and hospitals are running out of medicines amid tough sanctions against the country’s leaders.
Banks around the world froze the war-scarred country’s assets when the Taliban marched to power after Western forces pulled out last August.
In America, victims of the 9/11 terror attacks are demanding billions in compensation from the suspended assets.
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Aid money is also slow to get through as banks are cautious about transferring money to Afghanistan.
Today, writing for the Sunday Mirror, Mr Brown implores governments to free Afghan money so health workers, teachers and public servants can be paid.
The UN special envoy for global education says: “All too slowly the world is waking up to the scale of the disaster... the lives of 23 million Afghan people are at risk.”
His plea comes as one British Afghan, who fled the country last month, described the scenes of poverty and destitution in the capital of Kabul.
The Bradford father of five was forced to leave his family behind so he could return to the UK to work and send them money for food.
The 30-year-old who we are not naming for his family’s safety, said: “Starvation is everywhere. Women sit in streets begging with their children, kids are rooting through plastic and rubbish to find food and families are selling babies to feed their siblings.
“Outside bakeries between 100 and 150 people wait, desperate for those who can afford food to give them a little to eat. There are no medicines and people are turning to opium, which is cheaper than seeing a doctor.
“My family are lucky because they have someone to send them money. But millions are not. The country is on the brink.”
Dr Mohammad Hotak, chair of the Afghan Council of Great Britain, accused the Government of abandoning the country.
He said: “We have not heard from a single senior minister."
A petition by Save the Children calling on the UK government to host a global summit to respond practically and financially to the crisis in Afghanistan can be signed here.
