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On Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of donors, Britain announced it would increase its financial assistance to Afghanistan.
In January, the UN announced that it needed more than $ 4 billion from donor countries to fund humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.
Reuters
The United Kingdom pledged an additional 6 286 million (approximately 349 million francs) to Afghanistan ahead of a coordinated UN donors conference on Thursday to raise more than $ 4 billion.
“The new fund will be distributed through trusted UN and NGOs. No funds will go directly to the Taliban,” British Foreign Secretary Lis Truss said in a statement.
Women’s education
The United Kingdom, which has already released 28 286 million to Afghanistan for fiscal 2021/2022, is thus renewing its contribution. According to the head of British diplomacy, the United Kingdom’s assistance has already enabled it to support more than 60 hospitals, provide health care to more than 300,000 people, and was able to provide emergency food assistance to nearly 4.5 million people through the World Food Program. (WFP), and the UN Humanitarian Fund for Afghanistan, which helped 6.1 million people.
During the conference, he promised to make girls’ education the focus of the UK response, and to urge the Taliban to reverse the decision to keep girls out of high school, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Budget cuts
The Taliban returned after the British government was severely criticized by humanitarian organizations and its opposition for reducing the size of the budget for international aid due to the Kovit-19 epidemic, and for its “chaotic move to expel its countrymen and Afghans who worked for the British.”
In January, the UN announced that it needed $ 4.4 billion from donor countries to fund humanitarian needs in Afghanistan this year, the largest amount ever requested for a country. According to London, the United Nations estimates that about 10 million children in Afghanistan are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
(AFP)