When Latifa Haidari finally arrived in Kabul two weeks ago, her nine-month-old son Loqman was already severely malnourished and dehydrated. Doctors told her it had almost been too late.
Loqman had been sick for several weeks, but with no adequate health facility available and the powdered milk Mrs Haidari usually purchased out of stock, his health quickly deteriorated. His body became frail and dehydrated.
“I travelled to Kabul to try to save his life,” the 32-year-old mother of seven told The National. She had barely been able to pay the 700 Afghani [$8] bus fare from her native Baghlan province – an eight-hour drive through the Hindu Kush and over the Salang Mountain Pass – to Kabul.
Mrs Haidari had come alone, which is uncommon in Afghanistan, but paying for an additional bus ticket for her husband or another relative had been impossible, so she decided to take the risk to try to save her son’s life.
Since the Taliban’s military takeover in August, Afghanistan has been thrown into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis as almost $10 billion in bank funds – most of them private assets – remain frozen and the majority of aid has been put on hold.
The hardline group has since been trying to set up a functioning government, but it lacks international recognition and there are internal divides within the group.
Throughout the country, 2,000 health facilities are now in the process of closing or have already shut their doors as money has dried up, according to the Red Cross, leaving millions of people without access to doctors and – struck by poverty – unable to travel long distances to seek health care.
Few signs of improvement are visible as the international community is in no rush to formally recognise the ‘Islamic Emirate’s’ government. Amid increasing inflation, widespread unemployment and few funds available within the country, desperation is growing and fears are rising that Afghanistan could once again – as it did during the 1996-2001 Taliban rule – become a failed state.
Aid groups now warn that more than seven million children are at risk of hunger throughout the country.
“At least one million children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year and could die without proper treatment,” the Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said in a report last month.
Half of Afghanistan's children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, latest data released by the Unicef showed, while 14 million people could face acute food insecurity.
The Sehatmandi project – the biggest donor-funded health initiative providing health care in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces – is currently running at only 17 per cent capacity.
Haidari said that while she felt safer now – the journey from Baghlan to Kabul had previously been dangerous, at times passing front lines and Taliban checkpoints – “everything else” had become worse.
“We can’t afford food and medicine and we have no fully functioning hospitals in our province. We even had to borrow money for my trip to Kabul,” she said, holding her frail son in her arms.
“I don’t know how I’ll get home and I don’t know if I’ll be able to take my other children to hospital if they get sick.”
At the Indira Ghani Children’s Hospital, where Loqman is recovering, doctors and nurses are trying to cope with a massive influx of patients.
“It’s much more than last year,” said the malnutrition ward’s head nurse, Mohammed Anwar.
“Sometimes we admit up to 12 malnourished children a day, with parents coming here from all over the country. It’s getting worse because poverty is significantly increasing and health services across the country are either limited or closed completely. At the same time, roads are open and safe to travel on for the first time in years, so more patients are coming to Kabul.”
Zenad Sawkey, 36, brought her malnourished 3-year-old son Sohaib to Kabul a week ago, a five-hour drive from her home in the eastern Kunar province.
“There are no jobs in Kunar and no good hospitals to treat children. My husband is a farmer and was mostly selling in Pakistan, but since the Taliban came, he hasn’t been able to do any business. We’re out of money,” she said, sitting next to Sohaib, the room full of other mothers and their children.
Anwar believes that “this is just the start”, with Indira Ghani being the country’s biggest and best equipped hospital.
“If people don’t have access to money and food, more children will face hunger. We’re at the start of a crisis that could see many lives lost.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
ABU DHABI T10: DAY TWO
Bangla Tigers v Deccan Gladiators (3.30pm)
Delhi Bulls v Karnataka Tuskers (5.45pm)
Northern Warriors v Qalandars (8.00pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
