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UN seeks millions in Afghanistan aid at Geneva conference

War-torn Afghanistan immediately needs at least $600 million to avert severe food shortage, which has been exacerbated by a drought, UN officials say.

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Half of Afghanistan's population was dependent on international aid even before the Taliban took over the country in August.

The United Nations is convening an aid conference in Geneva on Monday in an effort to raise more than $600 million for Afghanistan, warning of a humanitarian crisis there following the Taliban takeover.

Even before the Taliban's seizure of Kabul last month, half the population — or 18 million people — was dependent on aid. That figure looks set to increase due to drought and shortages of cash and food, UN officials and aid groups warn.

An abrupt end to billions of dollars in foreign donations following the collapse of Afghanistan's Western-backed government and the ensuing victory of the Taliban has heaped more pressure on UN programmes.

US President Joe Biden's administration has frozen Taliban's access to $9.5 billion held in American bank accounts after the insurgent group seized control of the country.

That money belongs to Afghan central bank's international reserves.

IMF and World Bank have also cut off Kabul from foreign funding that was vital to run various relief initiatives.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says his organisation is struggling financially: "At the present moment the UN is not even able to pay its salaries to its own workers," he told reporters on Friday.

Afghanistan is already facing multiple economic issues with people lining outside banks to withdraw whatever scarce cash they have in deposits.

'Race against time'

The Geneva conference, due to begin on Monday afternoon, will be attended by top UN officials including Guterres, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer, as well as dozens of government representatives including German foreign minister Heiko Maas.

About a third of the $606 million being sought would be used by the UN World Food Programme which found that 93 percent of the 1,600 Afghans it surveyed in August and September were not consuming sufficient foods, mostly because they could not get access to cash to pay for it.

"It's now a race against time and the snow to deliver life-saving assistance to the Afghan people who need it most," said WFP deputy regional director Anthea Webb.

"We are quite literally begging and borrowing to avoid food stocks running out."

The World Health Organisation, another UN agency that's part of the appeal, is seeking to shore up hundreds of health facilities at risk of closure after donors backed out.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies