UNICEF's Chief of Operations in Afghanistan: "There is a generation in danger and we are determined to do our job"

Several European countries, led by Germany, have announced the suspension of their development aid for Afghanistan after the Taliban seize power.

The rise of these Sunni extremists also raises a question mark about working conditions for international humanitarian organizations.

Even so, the chief of operations of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Mustapha Ben Messaoud, expresses the will of that agency to remain in the Asian country.

"There is a generation in danger and we are determined to fulfill our task," he tells EL PAÍS by videoconference from Kabul.

Ben Messaoud is "cautiously optimistic" about the protection promises that the Taliban have given them.

“We have been talking to them on a daily basis.

In the cities that have been taking over, they have contacted us and assured us that we could continue our work ”, he declares.

More information

• The emblem of inadmissible horror

• The Taliban promise to respect women's rights but "within Islamic law"

During the Taliban dictatorship (1996-2001), UN agencies saw their activities and the movement of their employees very limited. Do you trust them not to go back to their old ways? “So far, they have kept their promises,” he says, mentioning the protection they provided to their Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif facilities, where there was a lot of chaos during the transition. Eleven of its 13 offices are up and running. She admits, however, that there are still some contradictions about whether her female employees can continue to work or about the girls' education.

In some areas, Taliban representatives await instructions on girls' education, while in others they are favorable. “Right now, boys and girls in primary and secondary school are taking tests in Herat, boys and girls,” emphasizes Ben Messaoud. In addition, he recalls that for a year they have run fifty community schools in areas that were already under Taliban control, serving 1,500 children, a third of them girls. "In Kabul and Kandahar schools are closed due to covid, so we'll see what happens when they reopen in September," he says.

It will be a test of the Taliban's sincerity regarding the education of girls, whom they excluded during their previous period in power.

Even if it happens, just a first step in improving early childhood education.

Despite the efforts made since 2001, when the US toppled the Taliban regime, Afghanistan still has four million children out of school and the UN continues to consider it one of the worst places in the world to be a child.

Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits

Subscribe here

The fighting, or fear of being caught up in it, has driven 390,000 Afghans from their homes since last February, according to the UN.

"Given the demographics of Afghanistan, we can estimate that half of them are children," says Ben Messaoud.

Unicef ​​is providing assistance to those who reach the cities, although the official admits there are many who do not reach.

In addition, it denounces that "there are children in armed groups", emphasizing the plural to avoid misunderstandings.

"Various Afghan activists have warned of the presence of very young armed boys among the Taliban militiamen who have entered successive cities since the beginning of the month," he says.

The head of Unicef ​​avoids going into details about the number of kids affected or what specific groups recruit them.

It is not clear if this involvement in the war has to do with 552 children having died and 1,400 injured since the beginning of the year.

"It is the highest figure since we have statistics on the matter," says Ben Messaoud.

The offensive that has brought the Taliban to Kabul has only exacerbated an already difficult situation.

“Even before the last outbreak of violence two months ago, we had an emergency situation due to the severe drought that affects between 80% and 85% of the country.

At least 18 million Afghans needed humanitarian assistance, half of them children and 3.5 million of them severely malnourished ”.