ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday welcomed a “largest-ever” appeal by the United Nations of $4.4 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan in 2022 to ensure the nation’s future after a period of turmoil marked by the Taliban’s seizure of power and a hasty US exit.
The world body said the appeal, which amounts to nearly a quarter of Afghanistan’s GDP, is the largest ever sought for a single country and is triple the figure it received in 2021 when the US-backed government collapsed.
Responding to the development, the prime minister said the initiative was the outcome of a special meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) nations Pakistan hosted in December.
In a tweet, he reiterated his earlier appeals to the international community to prevent the looming humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged nation.
“We welcome this UN initiative which has followed Pak-initiated special OIC FMs [meeting’s] pledged support.
We welcome this UN initiative which has followed Pak-initiated special OIC FMs mtg’s pledged support. I have been making this appeal to int community to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan where the ppl have suffered ravages of 40 yrs of conflicthttps://t.co/NtBzwudLdP
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 12, 2022
I have been making this appeal to int[ernational] community to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan where the [people] have suffered ravages of 40 [years] of conflict,” Khan said.
The abrupt withdrawal of foreign aid in 2021 following the Taliban victory in August left Afghanistan’s fragile economy on the brink of collapse, with food prices rising rapidly and causing widespread hunger.
Western sanctions aimed at the Taliban also prevented the passage of basic supplies of food and medicine, although this has since eased after exemptions were passed by the UN Security Council (UNSC) and Washington in December.
“Without this being funded, there won’t be a future […] we need this to be done otherwise there will be outflow, there will be suffering,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.
But Griffiths warned “this is a stop-gap, an absolutely essential stopgap measure that we are putting in front of the international community today”.
