Foreigners board a Qatar Airways plane at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, September 9, 2021
The UN humanitarian chief says USD 1.2 billion has been pledged to help Afghans facing a growing humanitarian crisis in the country and millions of people in the region, putting the pledge towards helping those in need. “A significant step forward”. Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths announced the total in pledges at the conclusion of a high-level ministerial meeting in Geneva on Monday, seeking US$606 million by the end of the year to help 11 million people.
Griffiths says the USD 1.2 billion includes funding for that appeal as well as the regional response to the Afghan crisis that UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi spoke to in Kabul.
Griffith is urging donors to turn the pledge into a cash contribution as soon as possible, saying that “the funding will throw a lifeline for Afghans” who lack food, health care and security.
He says the meeting showed solidarity with the Afghan people, but added that “Afghanistan faces a long and difficult road ahead” and that it is “far from the end of the journey.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) described the situation in Afghanistan as a “humanitarian emergency of internal displacement” as more than half a million Afghan civilians were displaced from the war-ravaged country. The UNHRC said on Twitter, “More than half a million Afghan citizens have already been displaced. The full impact of the emerging political situation is unclear. What is clear is that amidst all that we are going through, the massive Seeing displacement. Now there is a humanitarian emergency of internal displacement.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would convene a high-level humanitarian conference for Afghanistan on 13 September.
Guterres said on Twitter that Afghan children, women and men needed support and solidarity from the international community.
Read also | UN expresses dissent, concerns over Taliban crackdown on journalists
.