Nooruddin, who was jobless, in debt, and struggling to feed his children, felt he had no choice but to sell a kidney, becoming one of a growing number of Afghans willing to sacrifice an organ to save their families. The practice has spread so far in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement has been dubbed “one kidney village.”

“I had to do it for the sake of my children,” Nooruddin told AFP in the city near the Iranian border.

“I didn’t have any other option.”

Following the Taliban takeover six months ago, Afghanistan has been plunged into a financial crisis, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation resulting from decades of war.

Foreign aid, which once supported the country, has been slow to return, and hardline Islamists have been cut off from Afghan assets owned back overseas.

The trickle-down effect had already harmed Afghans like Nooruddin, 32, who quit his factory job after his income was reduced to 3,000 Afghanis (about $30) shortly after the Taliban’s return, choosing to believe he would find better things.

However, with hundreds of thousands of people out of work across the country, nothing else was accessible.

In his desperation, he sold a kidney as a quick fix.

“I regret it now,” he said outside his house, where faded clothes hang from a tree and a plastic sheet serves as a glass window.