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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have issued a joint statement on the Taliban seizing power in Afghanistan.
With the Taliban now having taken every major city—and the U.N. Security Council already being warned of "mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan"—the couple wrote that they're "speechless" at the situation.
"The world is exceptionally fragile right now," read a statement on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Archewell website. "As we all feel the many layers of pain due to the situation in Afghanistan, we are left speechless.
"As we all watch the growing humanitarian disaster in Haiti, and the threat of it worsening after last weekend's earthquake, we are left heartbroken.
"And as we all witness the continuing global health crisis, exacerbated by new variants and constant misinformation, we are left scared.
"When any person or community suffers, a piece of each of us does so with them, whether we realize it or not. And though we are not meant to live in a state of suffering, we, as a people, are being conditioned to accept it. It's easy to find ourselves feeling powerless, but we can put our values into action—together.
"To start, we encourage you to join us in supporting a number of organizations doing critical work. We also urge those in positions of global influence to rapidly advance the humanitarian dialogues that are expected to take place this fall at multilateral gatherings such as the U.N. General Assembly and the G20 Leaders' Summit.
"As an international community, it is the decisions we make now—to alleviate suffering among those we know and those we may never meet—that will prove our humanity."
The statement came after Prince Harry, who served two tours with the British Army and fought on the frontline in Helmand Province, spoke out on the fall of Afghanistan through his Invictus Games Foundation, which supports injured war veterans.
In a joint statement with the foundation's chair and chief executive, he said: "What's happening in Afghanistan resonates across the international Invictus community.
"Many of the participating nations and competitors in the Invictus Games family are bound by a shared experience of serving in Afghanistan over the past two decades, and for several years, we have competed alongside Invictus Games Team Afghanistan.
"We encourage everybody across the Invictus network—and the wider military community—to reach out to each other and offer support for one another."
The Taliban has managed to seize control of Afghanistan in just over one week, following the withdrawal of the U.S. and its allies.
On Sunday, soldiers descended on the capital, Kabul, as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the government effectively collapsed.
Experts have now expressed concerns over the quality of life of Afghan citizens, particularly the rights of women and girls, as the Taliban takes control.
The deterioration of the nation has been measured over the past decade against selected terrorism and violence indices obtained from data from the Institute for Economics and Peace and graphed by Statista.
In an effort to counter such projections and win over traditionally hostile nations, Taliban leaders have granted an "amnesty" to former government workers and invited women to join a new administration, which is in the process of being negotiated.
Updated 8/17/2021 11:00 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement released by Prince Harry through his Invictus Games Foundation and further information about the situation in Afghanistan.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more