The United Nations’ food agency announced an urgent need for $800 million over the next six months to address the severe risk of famine in Afghanistan, a situation the nation has not faced in 25 years.
Following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021 and the subsequent economic collapse, aid organizations have supplied food, education, and healthcare services to the Afghan population. However, the distribution of aid has been significantly hindered by a Taliban decree in December banning women from working for national and international NGOs.
Although the UN was not directly affected by this ban, it reported last week that the Taliban-led government had prevented Afghan women from working for its agencies in the country. There has been no official response to these restrictions.
The World Food Program (WFP) emphasized the crucial role of female aid workers in delivering food and nutrition assistance and pledged to make every possible effort to maintain this support. The organization also aims to ensure the active involvement of female staff.
The WFP urgently requires $800 million for the next six months to continue providing aid to people in need across Afghanistan. The UN warned that catastrophic hunger is imminent in Afghanistan and that hundreds of thousands more Afghans will require assistance to survive without sustained humanitarian support.
The UN stated on Monday that its Afghan operations remain significantly underfunded, with only $249 million confirmed for 2023, which is nearly one-third of the amount received during the same period in 2022. Afghanistan faces a third consecutive year of drought-like conditions, a second year of severe economic decline, and ongoing consequences of decades of conflict and natural disasters.
The agency’s office for humanitarian affairs outlined that $717.4 million is immediately required for the next three months to address critical gaps, contributing to a total funding shortfall of $4.38 billion for the 2023 humanitarian response.
Despite being the largest humanitarian crisis worldwide, Afghanistan remains the UN’s least-funded operation. The sudden halt of foreign aid following the Taliban’s takeover plunged millions of Afghans into poverty and hunger. Sanctions on the Taliban, cessation of bank transfers, and freezing of Afghanistan’s currency reserves had limited access to global institutions and external financial support that previously sustained the country’s aid-dependent economy before US and NATO forces withdrew.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, argued that the country’s assets had been unlawfully and unfairly frozen. He urged the UN to transfer Afghanistan’s seat to the Taliban-led government, which the government of former President Ashraf Ghani currently holds.
Muttaqi, in a video shared by the Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesman, Hafiz Zia Ahmad, mentioned that UN offices and other international institutions are operational in Kabul. His comments did not specifically address the ban on female Afghan UN employees. Still, he stated that the relationship between the UN and Afghanistan has been positive thus far.
