'We haven't eaten for days': Afghan soldiers suffer amid widespread corruption
An article last year from a French TV show:
https://observers.france24.com/en/20200218-afghanistan-corruption-rations-soldiers-army-eat
‘We haven't eaten for days’: Afghan soldiers suffer amid widespread corruption
Issued on: 18/02/2020 - 18:34
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Mohammad Naeim Ghayour, the former chief of military intelligence in the west of Afghanistan, attested to the widespread corruption in the Afghan army in an interview in 2011.
Corruption is huge in the army, and that's because there's a lot of money at stake," he explained. "I witnessed a meeting between an army garrison delegate and a contractor who was going to provide the food rations. They agreed to use bad quality ingredients so that they could turn a profit."
According to official statistics provided by a US Congress report, the Afghan army lost up to 10% of its soldiers in 2018 alone because of casualties and desertion.
According to the same report, there are thousands of 'ghost soldiers' in the ranks of the Afghan army: soldiers who exist only on paper, allowing commanders to inflate their budgets and fill their pockets. An Afghan army soldier earns only 200 dollars a month.