Ghulam Haider has depended on food and cash handouts from international aid agencies in order to survive.
He is among the millions of people who have received lifesaving aid in Afghanistan, where the Taliban's takeover in 2021 worsened a devastating humanitarian crisis and triggered an economic collapse.
But tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to fend for themselves after aid agencies, including the UN's World Food Program (WFP), recently suspended their operations in several provinces.
The move came amid U.S. fears that funds it provided to UN aid agencies that are distributing aid in Afghanistan were ending up in the hands of the Taliban. Afghans and aid workers have accused the militant group of interfering in the delivery of foreign assistance.
The suspension of aid operations in the provinces of Ghor, Uruzgan, and parts of Ghazni appears to be already pushing more people toward starvation.
"People are miserable," Haider, a resident of Ghor, in Afghanistan's remote central highlands, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "People here are destitute."
He said the WFP suspended its delivery of food, cash, and other assistance in April. "There has been no help for a month," Haider said. "People are in trouble."
A woman and child beg on the street in Ghazni city.
Wahidullah Amani, a spokesman for the WFP in Afghanistan, said the UN food agency stopped distributing food aid, including meals to schools, in late April. Amani estimated that nearly 500,000 people in Ghor now faced food insecurity.
"Families who expected to receive food aid will now be deprived of assistance until these interventions by the local authorities are resolved," Amani told Radio Azadi.
The United Nations estimates that two-thirds of Afghanistan's 40 million people, or more than 28 million, need humanitarian assistance this year. At least 6 million of them are on the brink of starvation.
Hikmat Laali, an activist in Ghor, said the humanitarian situation in Ghor was rapidly deteriorating. "The poorest are in dire straits," he told Radio Azadi. "Their miseries will increase if the people continue to be deprived of food aid."
Locals in Ghor have accused Taliban militants of confiscating food, money, and other assistance they received from NGOs. Observers have also accused the Taliban of trying to channel aid to its own fighters or communities that support the group.
"People were left with little food during the winter and had little fuel," Mohammad Hassan Hakimi, an activist in Ghor, told Radio Azadi.
'Funding For The Taliban'
Last month, the United States said its NGO partners had suspended aid in several Afghan provinces following "evidence of continued attempts by the Taliban" to divert assistance.
"We do not provide funding for the Taliban," Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesman, told journalists in Washington on May 24. "We require all of our partners that we work with to have safeguards in place to assure the assistance reaches those who need it."
Miller said that the WFP had halted operations in two districts of the southeastern province of Ghazni from January to April because local Taliban officials attempted to direct the delivery of aid.
He added that an aid organization that received funding from Washington suspended its activities in the southern province of Uruzgan in April "after the Taliban issued demands to provide transportation support to Taliban representatives and otherwise interfered in staff recruitment processes."
Newly recruited personnel joining the Taliban security forces demonstrate their skills during their graduation ceremony in the western city of Herat in February.
Miller's comments came after John Sopko, the U.S. special inspector-general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), a government watchdog, said that "it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars."
"Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban," Sopko told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on April 19. "Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending for the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people."
Sopko added that the "Taliban generate income from U.S. aid by imposing customs charges on shipments coming into the country and charging taxes and fees directly on NGOs."
'Devastating Impact'
Philippe Kropf, the head of communications at WFP, said the United Nations briefly halted aid distribution in Ghor in January. Weeks later, the agency resumed its operations after Taliban assurances that its fighters would not interfere in the delivery of aid. But continued Taliban meddling, he said, forced the WFP to suspend its activities.
Kropf said the WFP did not channel funds or food aid through the militant group. "Our operations are guided by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity, and independence," he said, adding that the WFP assists people directly through its vetted partners based on independent needs assessments.
A man carries a bag of wheat flour he received from the WFP in the southern province of Uruzgan in March.
"Any instance where interference with WFP assistance is detected that cannot be resolved locally will result in the suspension of deliveries," he said.
The Taliban has rejected allegations that it is interfering in aid deliveries. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban's Economy Ministry had formed joint operational procedures with agencies to ensure that aid distribution is transparent.
"If any problems are detected, the government will have to intervene to address those," he told Radio Azadi. "But such issues are rare."
The Taliban's ban on Afghan women working for local and foreign NGOs has also adversely affected the delivery of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
That decision in December led major international humanitarian organizations to halt or reduce their operations, including emergency food distribution, health services, and education. In April, the ban was expanded to include the United Nations.
SEE ALSO: 'Every Midwife Is Afraid': Worrying Signs Over Maternal Deaths In AfghanistanOn June 5, the United Nations revised its annual aid budget for Afghanistan from $4.6 billion to $3.2 billion this year, citing reduced funding from international donors. It said in a statement that a "changing operating context" in the wake of the Taliban's ban on female aid workers had contributed to the revised plan.
Kropf said the lack of funding had prompted the WFP to cut emergency assistance to some 8 million highly vulnerable Afghans this year.
"Such cutbacks in humanitarian food assistance will have a devastating impact on women, young children, and the elderly in particular," he said.