now on bbc news... it's panorama. i'm returning to a country that's survived decades of war. now, afghanistan is on the brink of an economic catastrophe. people lost their jobs, they lost their salaries. they are scared of poverty, they are scared of hunger. almost the entire population is living in poverty and more than half don't have enough to eat.

i feel terrible for my people. it's so sad to see how dependent people are and how desperate people are. afghanistan is enduring one of its darkest winters. and its people are struggling to survive. i've often reported on food crises around the world, but afghanistan is different. when the taliban took power, the economy collapsed overnight. hello. good afternoon. how are you? thank you. millions of families, like noor�*s, were pushed into poverty. hasanat is seven. she's keeping the family fire going by burning rags.

how are you? thank you. millions of families, like noor�*s, were pushed into poverty. hasanat is seven. she's keeping the family fire going by burning rags. they've run out of wood. you've got this family, there's seven, you live on three loaves... is that all? translation: there's not enough. _ but myself and my wife go without to feed the children. noor had to move to these rented rooms after losing his job as a security guard. he makes what he can by doing odd jobs. translation: we have to get through it. - sometimes, the neighbours send food.

whether we can cope or not, it'll pass. we will get through it. in afghanistan, like so many countries in the world, there's no safety net for people. once you start on the downward slope, there's nothing really to stop you going right down to the very depths. noor and his family used to be pretty well off, by afghan standards. now, they're staring into the abyss. noor is far from alone. a staggering 97% of the population face life below the poverty line. around 23 million can't afford enough food. it's desperate. it's dark. it's bleak. we've got 4.7 million children, and women who are pregnant and breast—feeding, who are basically in that pocket of malnutrition. we need to get food

to families, food to starving children, mothers who are weeping and beside themselves. there have always been beggars around in kabul, in particular, always, ever since i can remember, but i don't think i've ever seen as many as we're seeing now. and the age range is different. it used to be just old people and little kids, and now it's adults of every age and both sexes. the afghans have survived a0 years of war. first, the russians came and were driven out. then the taliban took power.

the society which the taliban have created here in kandahar is probablyjust about the most extreme form of islamic fundamentalism that you could find anywhere in the world. when the country became a base for international terror groups, an american—led coalition invaded. the us and uk spent 20 years fighting the war on terror and propping up afghanistan. then, last august, the taliban returned. and then, injust a matter of a few days last summer, everything changed. the americans pulled the plug on afghanistan and the economy collapsed.

75% of public spending in this country came from western aid. most of that cash disappeared overnight. the government stopped paying wages and private businesses shut down. the lights went off. people lost their jobs, they lost their salaries. for the first time, this is a new urban class of hungry people. they genuinely are in

uncharted territory. they are scared of poverty. they are scared of hunger. when the taliban returned last summer, the old government fled. but one minister has stayed in post. this is afghanistan's finance ministry. ground zero, you could say, of the economic disaster that's overtaken the country.

but i've come here to see the one man who thinks that he may be able to keep it from utter destruction. the us still classes the taliban as a terrorist organisation. but nazir kabiri says working with afghanistan's new masters is the only way to save his country. you stayed in afghanistan and you're working for the other side. i did this, and the basic motivation came from the fact that we can't turn our back to the people the same way that the leaders have. and that, of course, requires understanding, that requires negotiations, that requires dialogue. without commitment, without bravery, this wouldn't have been possible. five months down the road, i have a share in stopping part of the humanitarian tragedy, and for which, that's pride of my life. some who fought the war on terror think nazir�*s right, that it's time to start working with the taliban. the taliban are a very broad grouping and there's no doubt,

within that grouping, there are many that we can and must come to terms with and deal with. the fact is, they defeated us and we have to come to terms with that inconvenient fact. they are now the government of afghanistan. they are responsible for 40 million—odd people. around $10 billion of the country's cash has been frozen by the international community. and financial sanctions on taliban leaders have stopped almost all foreign investment. afghan banks have been starved of cash. the country's broke. it's a very difficult and challenging time for the people of afghanistan, but the core need is to help them revive their own economy, their own livelihood, and that is not possible

without the state, that's not possible without the public bureaucracy, that's not possible without the central bank. that's absolutely not possible without the ministry of finance and these institutions. it's the financial collapse that's driving the hunger. this isn't an ordinary crisis. in cities like kabul, there is food, there's just not enough money to buy it. there'sjust not enough cash in the country, for this country to function. it's really shocking that the world is allowing things in afghanistan to deteriorate to such an extent and at such a speed that an entire population is at risk. it's unconscionable to me, to be honest. i genuinely can't see how this situation can change, unless there's major shift in thinking at the international level. some of the hunger

here could be stopped if sanctions were lifted. but that could help the taliban maintain their grip on power. nobody has recognised the taliban. _ every country in the world has reservations about the - ideology, the past behaviour. so i entirely understand why some restrictive measures l and sanctions should remain in place. - i don't think anybody wants the taliban to get hold - of free...foreign exchange, dollars or pounds, to go. and buy arms from arms. dealers around the world. nobody wants that. the uk government says it remains committed to the people of afghanistan and is providing

£286 million in aid. it's part of a big international effort to feed the country. the international rescue committee hasjust published its emergency watchlist for 2022 and afghanistan comes in at number one. and it is the number one crisis, humanitarian crisis, in the world today because more people's lives are at risk in afghanistan than anywhere else and their numbers are in the millions, not just in the thousands. this country hasn'tjust suffered the hardships of war. i'm on my way to herat, a city that's also suffering the worst drought in a generation. when i arrive in herat, a local official is waiting to greet me. he wants to get the taliban's message out. sanctions are hurting the people. thank you very much indeed. thank you.

sanctions are hurting the people. thank you very much indeed. thank you. you're welcome.

well, that was an interesting, quite indicative encounter. normally, when i meet the taliban, they hold me at arm's length, very suspicious, often quite hostile, but now there is a different mood. they need help here. even the taliban's critics agree that something has to change. the issue with the sanctionsj is whether the people you're harming are the people - you want to harm, and that's the difficulty with what's - happening in afghanistan right how. the world does have - to work out what its way of engaging with the taliban is going to be _ but whatever the solution to that question is, - it can't be the collective i punishment into starvation of a population of 40 million. the uk government says it's doing everything it can to protect britain from harm and to help the afghan people, but the situation remains desperate. this clinic is run by the charity medecins

sans frontieres. a big problem is malnutrition. these children are here because their parents can't afford to feed them. they�* re severely underweight. in the case of severe acute malnutrition, what we're seeing here a lot is young infants whose mothers are sometimes malnourished themselves, and therefore they cannot produce enough breast milk for the infant. in older babies, older children, it's usually because they cannot afford to buy food, and this is usually what the mothers

come and tell us. it's children like yaseen. he's acutely malnourished. so is bilal. it's very hard to go into a hospital, to go into a clinic and to see children who look like they're six months old, but they're actually maybe two—and—a—half years old because they are painfully, painfully underweight, painfully malnourished. when you see those small children, who sit there, and there's no laughter, there's no playing, there's just...this dull silence...

..it�*s very... it's beyond words. there are no words. everywhere you go, you see people on the move, looking for work so they can feed theirfamilies. this encampment wasn't even here three months ago. this camp has only sprung up just recently. it's full of people who've come to herat, out of sheer desperation, from the surrounding provinces. one man told me he had left his farm in another part of the country. the drought made it impossible to make a living from the land. and this is hard. this is like biscuit. imean, it... he says it's days old, and he's clearly absolutely right.

and this is what he and three other people in his family have to live on all of today,

and my guess is, we haven't spoken to everybody here, but my guess is that goes for everybody here. the crisis means people are desperate to leave the country altogether. vast queues build up every day outside the iranian consulate. hundreds upon hundreds

of people standing in line. the iranian border is close here. getting out could mean an end to hunger. these are the grounds of the iranian consulate, and every day huge crowds of people turn up to apply, in the hope of applying, for visas to get out. such is the desperation that people have here, that they've got to escape from this afghanistan. as—salamu alaykum. why do you want to go to iran?

can you tell me why you want to go to iran? this man told me he wanted to get over the border for medical attention. today, afghanistan, after all it's been through, is a place they're desperate to leave. a few days later, visa applications here were temporarily suspended because of overwhelming demand. people are trapped in poverty, with no access to cash.

you can't run a private sector economy if you haven't got a functioning banking system. and at the moment, afghan traders, never mind the government, can't pay for food, fuel, medicines that are essential to import into the country. all of that needs a shift in western policy and it needs it urgently, notjust as a matter of political rhetoric, but because literally lives are at stake. the aim of sanctions is to force the taliban to behave better. there are few women on the streets here,

and many girls don't go to school. and there have been some reports of executions. but this taliban regime does feel different. 25 years ago, people were terrified of speaking out. now, they talk openly about wanting to leave. why would i live in here? and i myself believe i'm a global citizen, so i would better leave to go to live in another piece of the earth. how would you get out? i don't know. there is a lot of ways, you know? are you scared to be saying these kind of things? somehow, but somehow not. so why shall i be scared, if there's all worse? there's suffering from lack

of foods, lack of works, lack ofjobs, lack of help. there's no real comparison between working now in afghanistan, as we are, and working here when the taliban were last in control, in 1996. we don't have a minder following us around everywhere, insisting on controlling who we interview and what we film. but you have to remember this is just the beginning for them. the uk government says the taliban need to abide by international norms if they want international acceptance. but is it now time to reach out? i think the west is going to end up recognising the taliban government. if that's the case, then we'd

better get on with it sooner, rather than later. there's a great phrase — "be magnanimous in victory." i think this is an occasion for us to be magnanimous in defeat. to see the worst problems, you have to leave the towns. i've come to a village close to the border with iran. there's been little rain here for the past two years. when we arrive, the queues stretch out once again. the conditions here are absolutely brutal — the wind whipping at us, the sand in our eyes, between our teeth, in our clothes, and when you look down at the soil, that's all it is. there's absolutely no way these people can make the conditions here are absolutely brutal — the wind whipping at us, the sand in our eyes,

between our teeth, in our clothes, and when you look down at the soil, that's all it is. there's absolutely no way these people can make a living out of farming, and that's why they come here, desperate for food. there are five categories in a food crisis. this area is the second highest, level four. four is actually . emergency level. that is one step. before starvation. you're an afghan, you come from this area. what do you feel about the situation here? i feel terrible for my people.

it's so sad to see how- dependent people are and how desperate people are. so it's not... it's not something... well, it's... i have a lot of emotions i when it comes to the level of desperate—ness people go. through in this period of time. it's one of the most difficult times i've i everseen in my life. the people here have endured decades of war. their reward is a humanitarian disaster that's unfolding before our eyes. decades of disaster, decades of desperation, and yet you meet people here who have lived through all of this, they are the strongest people, they are some of the kindest people, and yet they just feel that this hopelessness has just been thrust upon them for no reason. hunger, drought, desperate poverty.

sanctions may eventually force the taliban to change, but for now, it's ordinary afghans who are paying the price. i've been reporting on afghanistan for more than 40 years, but i don't think i've ever felt before that i might be watching the destruction of a nation. and do you know what? these people have been through so much in the past decades and they simply don't deserve it.

this is bbc news. our top stories, president biden tells us citizens to leave ukraine now, warning "things could go crazy quickly" britain's most senior police officer is to step down after the mayor of london said he had no confidence in her leadership. canadian truckers block more border crossings to the us in their protest against vaccine mandates, with the economy now counting the cost. a coronavirus scare for the queen. prince charles tests positive two days after meeting the monarch. as with all the medical or health related matters, buckingham palace is saying the absolute minimum. all that royal sources will say is that the queen is not displaying any symptoms of covid.