Three steps necessary to help save Afghanistan from further misery

The current meltdown in Afghanistan is a nightmare. The international community must act, and there are three things in particular that it can do without rewarding the Taliban, writes Gordon Brown and Martin Griffiths

A nurse checks the weight of a child in a makeshift clinic at a settlement in Afghanistan. Malnutrition stalks the most vulnerable and aid groups say more than half the population faces acute food shortages.

IT IS now more than four months since the dramatic exit of US and other Western forces from Afghanistan. By chartering special flights, loosening asylum rules, and releasing funds, Western countries airlifted a few thousand lucky Afghans to safety as the Taliban retook control of the country. But those left behind have been shut off from the rest of the world — whether or not they are Taliban supporters.

Foreign governments have frozen international banking transactions and trade with Afghanistan, mostly at the behest of the United States, by imposing the vast array of counter-terrorism rules established over the past 20 years. As a result, Afghan public sector salaries have dried up, and the economy has tanked. Many development-aid projects, no matter how essential, have been paralysed or cancelled.