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Afghanistan is still so destitute and undeveloped that most inhabitants have no central heating, electricity or running water. |
WASHINGTON — More than six years after US-led troops ousted the Taliban and installed a West-favored regime, Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a "failed state," a leading think tank warned on Wednesday, January 30.
"Urgent changes are required now to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a failing or failed state," the Atlantic Council of the United States said in a study cited by Agence France Presse (AFP).
It noted that Afghanistan is gripped by a vicious circle of violence six years after the West military intervention.
The Washington-based council, headed by retired Marine Corps General James Jones, stressed that Taliban fighters are "increasing" their control of large parts of the Asian Muslim country.
It warned of serious and far-reaching consequences if the security situation continued to deteriorate.
"Not just the future of the Afghan people is at stake.
"If Afghanistan fails, the possible strategic consequences will worsen regional instability."
Despite the deployment of 50,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the US military, Afghanistan has seen the worst violence in the past years.
The country has become the world's number one source of refugees, who are fleeing insecurity and a nonstop cycle of bloodshed.
UN figures show that of the millions of Afghans living beyond borders, some 57 percent are unwilling to return home.
Crumbling Governance
The Atlantic Council also criticized the crumbling reconstruction and reform in Afghanistan.
Despite immense resources and foreign aid poured into the country over the past years, civil sector reforms remain "in serious trouble", concluded the report.
"To add insult to injury, of every dollar of aid spent on Afghanistan, less than ten percent goes directly to Afghans, further compounding reform and reconstruction problems."
Afghans still lack the very basics of life.
The country is still so destitute and undeveloped that most inhabitants have no central heating, electricity or running water.
According to the international policy think tank Senlis, more than 70 percent of Afghans are chronically malnourished, while less than a quarter has access to safe drinking water.
Worse still, the cancer of corruption is running rampant.
A national survey of the Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) showed last year that corruption has hit a level unprecedented for the past three decades.
The Sunday Telegraph has revealed that half of all foreign aid allocated to help improve deplorable living standards of ordinary people has been siphoned off by corrupt officials in President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government.
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