Afghanistan’s weekly shipment of $40 million in cash aid from the United Nations has been suspended for the past month – amid ongoing tension between the Taliban and the organization following the Taliban’s ban on women working for the UN in Afghanistan.
The Taliban-run central bank last reported receiving the weekly cash aid shipment on March 14.
On April 4, the Taliban ordered the UN in Afghanistan to stop employing women. In response, the UN sent all its national staff home – both men and women – and have been in talks with the Taliban to overturn their ban. However, no decision has yet been taken by the Taliban.
Questions have however continuously been raised over the cash aid shipments and whether the money is only going to aid agencies in Afghanistan or whether its reaching the Taliban.
Critics have for months said the Taliban is benefiting directly from it.
“The issue of $40 million in cash under the pretext of humanitarian aid is a cover. No one is receiving it. No one anywhere has reported that it has been given to them,” said Mohammad Mohaqiq, head of the Unity Party of Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, the UN office in Afghanistan said categorically that the cash was not being accessed by the Taliban and that it was being held in a private bank and that only aid agencies linked to the UN had access to the money.
“This money is for humanitarian assistance programs and is not assistance to the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) and this aid is for vulnerable people in Afghanistan,” said Michael Sample, former deputy head of the European Union mission in Afghanistan.
On Friday, US Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction, SIGAR, said that at the request of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, it is assessing Afghanistan under Taliban rule. It is believed the assessment will include US financial support to Afghanistan from August 2021 to April 2023.
“Taliban’s acts and their lack of legitimacy make them deserving not to be recognized and they don’t deserve to be given money,” said Mohaqiq.
Figures show that Afghanistan has received 55 packages of $40 million in the 20 months since the Taliban seized control following the collapse of the republic government.
