Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Thursday that Afghanistan's government,...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Thursday that Afghanistan's government, the Taliban, is making it hard for humanitarian aid to get into the country and is getting in the way of aid deliveries.
Since the hardline Islamist Taliban took over in August when U.S.-led forces left after 20 years of war, international banks are afraid to test U.N. and U.S. sanctions. This makes it hard for the UN and aid groups to get enough money to run their operations.
"The formal banking system continues to block transfers because of too much risk management," Griffiths told the 15-member Security Council. "This affects payment channels and breaks up supply chains."
The UN has been trying to get a system going called the Humanitarian Exchange Facility (HEF) to swap millions of dollars in aid for Afghan currency. This is part of a plan to stop the aid and economic crises and get around the sanctions on Taliban leaders.
"We haven't made much progress because the people in charge are standing in the way. This is a problem that won't go away on its own "Griffiths said that the UN had to get the Humanitarian Exchange Facility up and running before Afghanistan's formal banking system could work well again.
He said that about half of the aid groups recently polled by the United Nations had trouble sending money to Afghanistan. This was down from 87 percent in October. He added, "The trend is good, but the number is still alarming."
Griffiths said that two-thirds of the aid groups said they couldn't do their work in Afghanistan because there wasn't enough money.
Griffiths also said that the Taliban government is interfering more and more with the delivery of humanitarian aid, even though they promised U.N. officials in September that they wouldn't.
"National and local governments are trying to get more involved in choosing recipients and getting help to people on their own priority lists. They say that almost everyone needs help," he said.
"The Taliban are also making more requests for information about budgets and staffing contracts," he said, adding that aid groups "continue to have trouble hiring Afghan women for certain jobs."
The Taliban could not be reached right away for a response to what Griffiths said.
Griffiths said that the UN had only gotten $1.4 billion of the $4.4 billion it needed to help people in Afghanistan in 2022. He said, "We just don't have enough money."
The council met about Afghanistan for its quarterly meeting a day after an earthquake in a remote part of the country killed at least 1,000 people.
