UN completes fund raising for Afghanistan humanitarian response

The funds worth $600 million will be directed towards helping around 11 million people in Afghanistan, the global humanitarian agency says.

The UN and its non-governmental organisation partners provided food assistance to 7.2 million people between September 1 and November 15, OCHA says.
AP

The UN and its non-governmental organisation partners provided food assistance to 7.2 million people between September 1 and November 15, OCHA says.

The United Nations has said its flash appeal for more than $600 million to support the humanitarian response in Afghanistan until the end of the year was now fully funded.

"We can now report that the flash appeal is 100 percent funded," Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Following the Taliban takeover of the country in August, the UN held a ministerial meeting in Geneva in September, asking international donors for urgent support.

The main donors were the United States, European countries and Japan, who helped reached the total funding goal of $606 million (539 million euros).

The funds will be directed towards helping the 11 million most deprived people in Afghanistan.

READ MORE: UN urges action to avoid 'colossal' collapse of Afghan banking system

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Economic collapse

Laerke stated that the big problem now is "impeding the economic collapse of the country."

"However, not all funding has been translated into action because of the crisis in Afghanistan's banking and financial system. And half of the population still need emergency aid," he said.

The financial crunch was aggravated after Washington froze about $10 billion of assets held in its reserve for Kabul and deteriorated further after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan's access to funding.

READ MORE: UN: Afghanistan's economy on brink of collapse

READ MORE: US: Taliban should earn legitimacy before accessing frozen funds

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