Some Afghan families are already forced to sell their children and body parts to survive, UN chief Antonio Guterres says, as foreign donors pledge just over half of ambitious aid target
UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths says he has been left"speechless" by the level of suffering in Afghanistan.
But at a virtual conference of donors co-hosted with Britain, Germany and Qatar, just over half of the ambitious target was reached, it announced on Thursday. "Wealthy powerful countries cannot ignore the consequences of their decisions on the most vulnerable," Guterres said, referring to the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan last year.
"The first step in any meaningful humanitarian response must be to halt the death spiral of the Afghan economy." The conference came a week after the Taliban provoked international outrage by closing down girls' secondary schools, despite promising a softer version of their harsh 1996-2001 rule.The UN's target was triple the amount requested in 2021 and comes with Afghanistan on the brink of economic collapse, with more than 24 million people said to need humanitarian assistance to survive.