Aid groups said Taliban authorities have tried in the past to divert aid to areas and people who supported their positions. The Afghan Taliban government has called on international governments to lift sanctions, and central bank assets as the country faces the aftermath of an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands homeless this week. As humanitarian aid continued to flow into Afghanistan, the funds needed for the country’s country’s development were cut off when the Taliban took control last August.
Since then, billions of dollars in Afghan central bank reserves abroad have remained frozen due to international sanctions against the Taliban government that have hampered the domestic banking sector and left the country’s country’s with few resources. “The Islam”c Emirate is asking the world to give the Afghans their most fundamental right, which is their right to life, and that is to lift the sanctions and thaw our assets and also provide aid,” said Abd”l Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Reuters in an interview.
Balkhi said Afghans’ rAfghans’life-saving funds should be the priority. On Wednesday, the earthquake that hit the east of the country damaged or destroyed 10,000 homes and injured about 2,000 people, straining the country’s health system and posing a major test for the Taliban government.
Taliban pledge not to interfere in aid.
Aid organizations have complained that in the past, the Taliban authorities had tried to divert aid to areas and people who supported their views or even seized goods to distribute themselves and claim the credit.
Khan Mohammad Ahmad, a senior Taliban official in the hard-hit Paktika province, said international organizations providing aid would not be hindered.
“Whether it “‘s WFP, it’sEF or any other organization… the international community or the United Nations… they will do the distribution themselves,” Khan said”.
“The respo”sible repo from the Islamic Emirate are here… our members will always be with them [to help]’, he added’, referriadded the Taliban’s Taliban’sfor for Afghanistan.
Afghan men examine damage to their homes after a recent earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23, 2022 [Reuters]
Emergency response teams tense
Afghanistan is often hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush Mountains, near the intersection of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Delivering aid has been made more difficult as the earthquake hit areas already suffering from heavy rainfall, resulting in rocky outcrops and mudslides that wiped out hamlets perched precariously on mountainsides.
Communications have also been affected by cell phone towers and fallen power lines.
Officials say nearly 10,000 homes were destroyed, an alarming number in an area where the average household size is more than 20 people.
Even before the Taliban takeover, AfghanistaAfghanistan’s response teams had been stretched to deal with the natural disasters that often hit the country.
But with only a handful of airworthy planes and helicopters left since they returned to power, the Taliban’s Taliban’sto latest canopy has been further limited.
