Daily Times

On Monday, an UN-sponsored conference is set to get underway in Geneva to collect funds of over $60 million to save war-torn Afghanistan from the possible ‘humanitarian crisis’, Daily Times reported.

Senior officials of international monetary organizations, representatives of the government of various countries, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Red Cross chief Peter Maurer will participate in the event.

About one-third of the total funds will be collected at the conference and spent under the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) which means 90 per cent of the Afghans were deprived of food because of the non-availability of cash.

Earlier, the western nations had decided to block aid to Afghanistan and froze its assets after the Taliban take over the country on August 15. After they blocked aid, the situation aggravated in Afghanistan.

Former chief of Afghanistan’s Central Bank had said three days ago, on September 10, that with the Taliban’s seizure of power, there was a danger of free fall of the economy as it faced a shortage of cash.

“I don’t want to say economic collapse, but I think it’s going to be (an) extremely challenging or difficult economic situation,” Ajmal Ahmady said, predicting GDP would shrink by 10 to 20 percent.

“Obviously, the access to dollars is going to be severely curtailed. But there’s also the question of local currency Afghanis” since the country has no local printing press, he said in a discussion hosted by The Atlantic Council. Amid the cash crunch, “You’re going to see the currency depreciate (and) inflation rise because we import significant amounts of food,” he added.

The civilian government of Afghanistan before the Taliban’s capture of power “was already facing a triple shock” of the Covid-19 pandemic, regional drought and the ongoing conflict.

On the other hand, most of the country’s reserves are held in the United States, which is trying to keep them out of reach of the Taliban, while the IMF and World Bank have stopped any aid programs with the country.