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Taliban Minister for Refugees Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani told Al Jazeera that urgent action was needed to help displaced Afghans before winter.
Kabul, Afghanistan – A member of the Taliban government calls for action and help from the international community, including donor agencies, to help Afghans displaced as winter approaches.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Taliban Minister of Refugees Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani said thousands of Afghans had been displaced, including around 20,000 from the Panjshir Valley who had come to Kabul.
Aid organizations have warned in recent days that Afghanistan faces an “imminent humanitarian crisis” if the aid cannot be delivered to the country.
Poverty could skyrocket to 97 percent by the middle of next year, according to the United Nations World Food Program, as famine and drought thousands to move to cities in search of means of subsistence.
Displaced Afghan child plays in an IDP camp in Kabul on September 13 [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]Haqqani told Al Jazeera that his government hopes to support the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in phases, now that Afghanistan is at peace, which should allow their return home.
The first would be to help displaced people return to their towns and rebuild their homes if they were damaged.
The next phase would be to designate support zones in the provinces from which the displaced have fled, in order to provide returnees with facilities, employment opportunities and other services.
The plan discussed by Haqqani calls for the Ministry of Refugees to be responsible for streamlining and allocating all aid flowing to Afghanistan in order to have a point where all needs are reported, reduce waste, prevent corruption. and to ensure that help is provided to those most in need.
International ambivalence
The Taliban have faced an extreme cash crunch since taking office in Afghanistan just over a month ago, with billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves frozen by the United States and international financial organizations.
Haqqani admitted that there was a “cash flow problem, but God willing, we will slowly overcome this problem as well.”
But any interaction of the international community with Haqqani will be difficult because the US government has designated him a “global terrorist” and placed a bounty of $ 5 million on him. He was also sanctioned by the UN, in particular for association with al-Qaeda.
The Taliban say sanctions should have been lifted after an agreement was signed between them and the United States in Qatar last year.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Friday called on countries to engage with the Taliban or risk a humanitarian crisis.
Speaking in Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan, Grandi said the international community should not only provide aid to the poverty-stricken nation, but also accept Afghan refugees.
Pakistan’s national security adviser Moeed Yusuf on Wednesday also called on the international community to engage with the Taliban or risk a return to instability in Afghanistan.
Before the Taliban takeover, a third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) came from foreign funding.
No government has yet recognized the Taliban’s interim government.
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