4. Violations of the Right to Food in the Afghanistan Conflict

Even before the current war, Afghanistan was the poorest country in Asia and faced a winter of severe food shortages, with an estimated five million people at risk.²⁶ This was caused by over two decades of war and three years of successively worsening drought, as well as Taliban repression and UN Security Council sanctions.²⁷

In the last three months the magnitude of the crisis has grown due to increased hunger and decreased international food assistance.²⁸ Both are a consequence of intensified war and US air strikes, which caused thousands of families to flee to the countryside and to border areas and disrupted the trucking routes used to supply millions of civilians with food aid.²⁹ Early winter snows have already cut off some of the most remote and destitute areas of the country, leaving many thousands at grave risk of starvation.³⁰

As illustrated by the following examples, all parties to the conflict have directly violated the right to food under human rights and humanitarian law by engaging in policies that have caused or contributed to the crisis in Afghanistan:

• US (and to a lesser degree UK) bombing in major cities and populated areas caused massive civilian flight to areas that are less accessible to food delivery, or to camps for refugees and internally displaced persons whose survival is dependent upon food aid.³¹ Air strikes have also hit warehouses and food convoys, for example destroying ICRC warehouses in Kabul with food and blankets for 55,000 disabled civilians.³² Under the climate of fear caused by the air campaign, “aid agencies are findingit difficult to secure trucks and driverswilling to enter the war zone to carry the supplies.”³³
• The Taliban have obstructed food aid on numerous occasions. On 16 October Taliban forces temporarily took over two WFP facilities with 7,000 tons of grain, or 14% of the total food delivery target for November, and one week later occupied and looted an ICRC office in Mazar-i-Sharif.³⁴ Lack of safety for its truckers prompted the WFP to “suspend operations, saying that the military attacks on Afghanistan made it too dangerous and that truck drivers had refused to go inside.”³⁵
• Northern Alliance forces have also routinely looted food deliveries since establishing control over most of the country: “Efforts to supply aid to Afghanistan have been severely hit by the return of anarchy on the highways which plagued the country before the Taliban came to power. Haulers who have ferried aid and commercial goods into Afghanistan since the collapse of Taliban rule have decided to cut back operations after being forced to hand over much of their cargo amid fears for their drivers’ safety.”³⁶

By exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and failing to ensure civilian access to food and other lifesaving supplies that were readily available from international relief agencies, all parties to the conflict are responsible for systematic violations of the right to food. Precise degrees of responsibility cannot be allocated between the parties, but it must be emphasized that the Northern Alliance and US now exercise effective control over most of Afghanistan and its population, including the areas hardest hit by famine. As a result they are legally bound to take all possible steps to guarantee the right to food and prevent starvation.