The United States government announced that it will allocate an additional $ 64 million in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, although it warned that the new Taliban regime is hindering aid operations and demanded that it allow them to continue safely.
The humanitarian aid departure, announced by the United States Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at the international conference organized today in solidarity with Afghanistan, will go mainly to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The Taliban are obstructing and interfering with aid shipments, prohibiting the work of female personnel and even retaliating against people who give or receive assistance,” warned, however, Thomas-Greenfield.
These events “are unacceptable, they destabilize Afghanistan and the region and cannot continue, as humanitarian workers are the best of our societies and must be able to do their vital work safely,” she added.
After the “recent transition” in Afghanistan, in the words of the diplomat, the Taliban must keep their promises of protection not only to humanitarian workers, but also to women and girls.
With the aid announced, the total allocated by the United States for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan this year amounts to 330 million dollars, said the ambassador, who urged the rest of the international community to show equal solidarity with the difficult situation of the Afghan people.
The international conference, organized by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, seeks to raise 606 million dollars in order to finance assistance operations in the country and help 11 million people, almost a third of the national population.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Italian Filippo Grandi, met with the Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Khalil Rahman Haqqani, in one of the first official meetings of the new Taliban government with representatives of the international community.
The head of the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) met with Haqqani to address “the continuity of cooperation and the distribution of assistance to displaced and returnees,” said a source from the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, who requested anonymity.
According to the source, the Minister for Refugees emphasized the need to maintain transparency in the delivery of humanitarian assistance and coordination between his office and UNHCR to guarantee the work and security of the mission in the country.