The Afghan army usually outsources the supply of food to local contractors. These contractors get the contracts through contacts. Usually, they bribe or blackmail army commanders in order to get the contract.



In lots of cases, the quantity and quality of the food is terrible. Some soldiers don't get anything. When soldiers or their commanders try to speak up about the problem, nothing happens. Politicians are busy elsewhere, and because of the corruption between the contractors and the army commanders, nothing happens.

Endemic corruption in the army

Masoud D. [not his real name] is an Afghan journalist that specialises in military and security matters. He has interviewed many soldiers over his career, and also asked us to remain anonymous.In May 2018, the police in Badghis province in the north-west of Afghanistan confirmed that a contractor that provided food to Afghan security forces was serving up dog meat.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.