UN Knows About Sale of Organs, Children in Afghanistan, Deputy Special Envoy Says

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The United Nations knows about instances of sale of children and human organs in Afghanistan as people there undertook extreme measures to deal with the humanitarian situation, UN Deputy Special Representative Ramiz Alakbarov told Sputnik.

"We saw already last year that people resorted to extreme methods of dealing with this situation, up to the sale of organs, the sale of children," Alakbarov stated.

Alakbarov pointed out that approximately 19-20 million people in Afghanistan are consistently in severe need of humanitarian assistance.

"Nineteen-million people continue to be undernourished. 6.6 million are close to starvation. This is a very high figure. In the country as a whole, about 25 million people live in poverty. And this is more than in 2016 - then it was 20 million," he said.

Alakbarov noted that according to United Nations data, two-thirds of the Afghan's earnings are spent on food, which adds to the overall difficulty of the situation.

"[I]n this situation, the population has no reserves, the resources of internal resistance to shocks and upheavals have been exhausted. Therefore, we say that the situation is very difficult," he added.

Seasonal rains in July have resulted in massive floods across Afghanistan resulting in a number of humanitarian organizations to assist the Afghans with food, medicines, emergency shelter and other necessities.

The floods have only added to the already difficult situation in Afghanistan. The rise to power of the Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorism) in 2021 resulted in deepening economic, humanitarian and security crises in the country. Moreover, a powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan in June, leaving more than 1,000 killed and 1,500 others injured.