Ill-fated Afghans resort to selling kidneys to feed families

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It is claimed that the practice of selling body organs and especially kidneys has become so widespread in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement is sadly even nicknamed "one kidney village."

 

New Delhi: Life has turned so helpless and tough for common Afghan people under the Taliban regime. A growing number of Afghans are willing to sell their organs to save their families from starvation.

Reports in international media said, one Nooruddin sold his kidney to raise money for his family. Jobless, debt-ridden and struggling to feed his children, Nooruddin felt he had no choice but to sell a kidney, the reports said.

The reports said this is becoming a pattern among a growing number of Afghans. It is claimed that the practice of selling body organs and especially kidneys has become so widespread in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement is sadly even nicknamed "one kidney village."

"I had to do it for the sake of my children," Nooruddin has been quoted by a western media agency.

Afghanistan has plunged into a severe financial crisis following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation. 

The trickle-down effect has particularly hurt Afghans like Nooruddin, who quit his factory job when his salary was slashed to 3,000 Afghanis (about US$30) soon after the Taliban's return. The reports said with many Afghans, faded clothes hang from a tree and a plastic sheet serves as a windowpane. 

Nooruddin was among eight people the French news agency spoke to who had sold a kidney to feed their families or pay off debts. 

A few months back, it was stated that 10 out of 11 of Afghanistan's most densely populated urban areas are now anticipated to be at emergency levels of food insecurity.

There have been repeated reports of an immense financial and humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country. Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, during his visit to Islamabad not long ago, had raised the issue of allowing the shipment from India with the Pakistani leadership.

The first convoy of 2500 MT of wheat assistance provided for Afghanistan people from India reached Jalalabad on Saturday morning, Feb 25.

The 50 trucks convoy dispatched from Attari travelled through Pakistan to Afghanistan, said Farid Mamundzay, Aghan envoy to India.

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