Overshadowed by the politi-cal and military turmoil engulfing Afghanistan with the Taliban takeover in August, climate change – particularly drought – is relentlessly striking this Central Asian nation with dire consequences, warns a Catholic aid agency official. “CRS has been working on a response to this climate-induced drought over the past two years. But the rest of the world is only waking up to the fact that we have the worst climate – induced drought in the world right now – the worst in living memory in Afghanistan,” said Kevin Hartigan, the Middle East regional director of Catholic Relief Services.
“It was not apparent to people because there was so much focus on the political and military crisis. Now that has calmed, you are seeing the United Nations and the rest of world waking up to this enormous climate phenomenon, drought and hunger,” Hartigan told Catholic News Service by Zoom from Herat, Afghanistan. The lack of rain has compounded Afghanistan’s problems.