U.S. announces $308 mn in aid for Afghanistan as crisis grows

Tags: International News

The United States has announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan as it edges towards a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

• The United States will donate an extra $308m in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, the White House has announced, bringing the total of US aid for Afghanistan and Afghan refugees in the region to nearly $782m since October.
• The aid will be channelled through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to humanitarian organisations providing shelter, healthcare, and emergency food aid, among other services.
• In August 2021 the US government froze nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation after Taliban took over the country. The US has designated the Taliban in its sanction list and no funds can be provided to the Taliban government by the US government or by its banks.
• No country in the world recognises Taliban government in Kabul.

United Nation’s biggest appeal:

• Meanwhile, the United Nations said that it needed $5 billion in aid for Afghanistan in 2022 to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and offer the ravaged country a future after 40 years of suffering.