Conflict costs Afghan govt above $24m a day

KABUL (Pajhwok): The conflict and violent extremism cost the Afghan government more than $9 billion in 2014 or $24 million a day, a recent investigative report released on Monday said.

The report released by Equality for Peace and Democracy (EPD) is composed of information collected from government departments and interviews with people in Herat, Bamyan, Nangarhar, Kabul, Kandahar, Faryab and Kunduz provinces in a period of eight months in 2014.

The EPD investigated expenses on insecurity, rebels’ reconciliation, compensations, destruction of assets, potential income, costs on public health, destruction of infrastructural facilities and their impact on development and displacement and refugees as a result of violence.

EPD head Edrees Omarzada told a press conference here said violence and extremism had inflicted considerable losses on Afghanistan, the region and the international community. The report covered only the costs paid by Afghanistan, he said.

Omarzada added Afghanistan incurred more $9 billion in losses around $24 million a day in losses as a result of terrorist attacks in 2014. The costs were four times higher than Afghanistan income per day.

Calling infrastructural development, education and health the most affected sectors by violence, he said, the costs would possibly increase in 2015 due to increasing violence.

Shah Mahmoud Miakhail, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) head for Afghanistan, said the war in Afghanistan had internal, regional and international factors. He said Afghanistan would not be a poor country if the costs paid to war were used for development.

Terrorism, extremism and violence would continue until good governance was ensured and the law and order situation improved, he said.

Najiba Ayubi, Killid Group Director, said, “The continuation of war in a country pushes a large number of youth into violence.”

She said a number of people had personal interests in the war and they fueled violence whenever there was a chance to win peace.

mds/ma

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