UN says Taliban resisting humanitarian aid

United Nations, Jun 24: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was told that the Taliban has been resisting humanitarian funding.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the UN that the Afghan banking system had blocked transfers which impacted pay channels that caused supply chain disruptions.

The UN has been trying to implement a system called the Humanitarian Exchange Facility to bypass the sanctions on Taliban leaders. This system involves swapping of aid Dollars for Afghan currency to ensure aid and to overcome the harsh economic situation the country is facing. Griffiths said that there has been limited progress.

He also said that the transfer of funds to Afghanistan has become difficult and the aid groups said that they had not received cash. The Taliban has been interfering with the delivery of humanitarian aid even as the agency received just one-third of the total 4.4 it needed for humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, the UN chief said.

The development comes days after Afghanistan was hit by an earthquake in which nearly 1,000 people had died. Afghanistan is also struggling to garner aid from foreign sources after it was cut off following the takeover of the country by the Taliban last year.

Before the earthquake the United Nations had warned of a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.