Afghanistan: Taliban find $ 12.3 million in cash and gold in homes of ousted former government officials

The Central Bank of Afghanistan announced on Wednesday that The Taliban found $ 12.3 million in cash and several gold bars in the homes of former government officials, including former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, at a time when the country is experiencing a liquidity shortage.

“The money recovered came from senior officials of the previous government and a series of national security agencies that had silver and gold in their homes, ”the central bank said in a statement.

“The Islamic Emirate”, the name given by the Taliban to Afghanistan, has transferred all the money “to the national coffers” in the name of the “transparency” which the Islamists pride themselves on., in opposition to the previous regime whose corruption they denounce.

Under the government of former President Ashraf Ghani, corruption was rampant and pervasive. Millions of dollars received in aid to the country were said to have been misappropriated. The former head of state himself is accused of taking millions of dollars with him when he fled to Abu Dhabi, which he has repeatedly denied.

Taliban investigate bank accounts of former senior officials Afghan government ousted in search of possible illicit profits, two industry executives said Tuesday.

Closed branches

One month after the fall of Kabul, the Afghan population continues to worry about the economic situation and fears the arrival of new bans putting an end to the rights acquired over the past twenty years.

Most officials have not yet returned to work and a large part of them suffer to survive without a salary.

For those who have money in the bank, withdrawals were limited to around $ 200 per week per person to avoid a collapse of the banking system.

Deprived of aid from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and central bank reserves frozen by the United States, the country is indeed facing a shortage of liquidity.

It is true that companies specializing in money transfer, such as Western Union or Moneygram, have announced the resumption of their operations, suspended on August 18. But in the street many Afghans report that their branches do not have enough cash.

Faced with the risk of humanitarian disaster, the international community has pledged, according to the UN, to provide $ 1,200 million in aid to the country’s NGOs. On Wednesday, the European Union announced additional aid of 100 million euros (118 million dollars) to the Asian country.

The allied countries of Russia and China have prepared this Wednesday in Tajikistan for a series of meetings to be held Thursday and Friday on the future of Afghanistan. The member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, made up of the former Soviet republics, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, made up of China, Russia, India and Pakistan, among others, will participate in these peaks.

(Por Emal Haidary and David Fox – AFP)

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