A whopping $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid are needed for Afghanistan in 2022, UN agencies claimed on Tuesday demanding asking donors for the funds which amount to nearly a quarter of the country’s GDP.
The UN appeal, the largest ever sought for a single country, is allegedly needed as an essential stopgap to ensure Afghanistan’s future after the turbulent Taliban’s seizure of power that has followed the hasty US exit.
The amount is also three times larger than the one received in 2021 when the US-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed, leaving the country in economic turmoil.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths called the funds an absolutely essential stopgap measure without which there won’t be a future.
Meanwhile, the White House announced on Tuesday that the United States has allocated another $308 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
This new contribution brings the total of Washington’s humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan to $782 million since October 2021, making the US single largest donor of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s fragile economy was left on the brink of collapse in August due to the abrupt withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban victory, and the food prices that skyrocketed rapidly have caused widespread hunger.
The passage of basic supplies of food and medicine were prevented by the Western sanctions aimed at the Taliban though this has eased after the UN Security Council and Washington have passed exemptions in December.
Along with the humanitarian aid, Washington has also announced sending through COVAX one million additional COVID vaccine doses to Afghanistan, which has confirmed over 150,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 7,000 deaths.
According to Griffiths, they’ve calibrated carefully the humanitarian plan so that aid will go directly to people in need instead of to the authorities for redistribution.
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