No cash aid package reaches Kabul in past 25 days

KABUL (Pajhwok): Flights carrying humanitarian assistance (cash aid) to Kabul have been suspended, says the United Nations. Some media reports also say aid has been stopped, but central bank denies the statements as baseless.

After last year’s political change, Afghanistan’s banking system came to a halt for some time and people faced severe economic problems. But later the international community started providing humanitarian aid.

Last year, from January 10 to July 7, $32 million in cash assistance arrived 25 times and $40 million 21 times.

Cash packages were brought to the country every week sometimes. In other instances, such packages arrived twice a week and sometimes once every two weeks.

However, the cash aid was once delayed for 27 days, once for 26 days, twice for 25 days, once for 23 days and once for 20 days.

The last 40-million-dollar aid package arrived in Kabul on December 14, 2022. However, no cash aid has since arrived in the capital.

The caretaker government has suspended university education for girls besides banning women from working for NGOs until next order.

According to the BBC, Martin Griffits, the head of UN humanitarian aid, has warned the ban on women’s work would have a serious impact on the delivery of assistance in Afghanistan.

He said if the caretaker government continued to restrict women workers, humanitarian aid flows to Afghanistan might come to a halt.

The Guardian quoted Griffiths as telling the BBC’s Radio 4: “UN flights carrying cash for humanitarian aid into Kabul had already been suspended pending a pause in the Taliban ban. The aid is supplied in cash due to US sanctions.”

Griffiths added: “I do not agree with the idea of the Taliban depending on international aid for its stability. The Taliban collects money through taxes, from all kinds of sources and through the administration of Afghanistan.”

On Sunday, Amu TV quoted a spokesman for the Da Afghanistan Bank as saying the international community had stopped cash aid to Afghanistan. The last package of cash aid arrived on December 14.

UNAMA stopped assistance in reaction to the latest restrictions on women working for foreign organisations.

But in a statement, the DAB spokesman rejected media reports about the suspension of international humanitarian aid.

He added the central bank welcomed principled action leading to the arrival of cash flows into the country to help the needy. The bank promised to continue striving for the sustainability of the banking sector.

DAB urged media outlets to comply with the principle of impartiality in writing and publishing news reports and eschew confusing the public.

sa/mud

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