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Norway urges World Bank’s Afghanistan donors to channel funds to UN
Norway is encouraging donors to a World Bank-administered fund for Afghanistan to agree to transfer $280 million to the World Food Programme and UNICEF, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said on Monday.
The World Bank’s board backed the transferring of $280 million to the UN agencies from the $1.5 billion Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), which was frozen after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) took power in August, Reuters reported.
The 31 donors to the fund must approve the transfer. A World Bank spokesperson said ARTF donors met last Friday and agreed to make a decision in one week.
During a joint interview with U.N. Development Programme chief Achim Steiner in New York, Huitfeldt told Reuters that she hoped donors would sign off on the transfer and that Norway “encouraged” them to do so.
“And we discussed the situation in Afghanistan during the NATO meeting last week, and also encourage NATO countries to continue to avoid a total economic or humanitarian collapse in Afghanistan,” she said.
Afghanistan is struggling with a sharp drop in international development aid after the IEA seized power, an economy and banking system on the brink of collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic and severe drought.
“If you cannot have enough food, you cannot educate your children, you cannot get health service for your family, you have no reason to live there anymore, you try to move on somewhere else,” Steiner said.
The UNDP has projected that poverty may become nearly universal by mid-2022 – affecting more than 90 percent of Afghanistan’s 39 million people.
“We face this particularly intense period between now and next year, where many Afghans are on the verge of giving up,” Steiner said.
A challenge for the United Nations has been getting enough cash into Afghanistan to help deliver aid to millions of people on the brink of famine and prevent the breakdown of the economy and health and education services, Reuters reported.
“The volume of finance that needs to be, in one way or another, mobilized by Afghanistan, is far larger than anything the financial system can cope with right now. So we are faced with an enormous constraint,” Steiner said.
It’s a problem that hasn’t been solved yet, Steiner said.
He said the United Nations was considering flying in U.S. dollars, but warned that could only be a short term solution as it was “not the basis on which the scaling up of finance that is needed will happen.”
Tajik authorities say their border guards clashed with militants who crossed into Tajikistan’s Khatlon region from Afghanistan on Tuesday night.
Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement that militants intended to carry out an armed attack on one of the border outposts.
Three militants were killed and two Tajik soldiers died in the clash. From the scene, three firearms—an M-16 rifle and a Kalashnikov assault rifle—three foreign-made pistols equipped with suppressors, ten hand grenades, one night-vision device, explosives, and other military equipment were seized, according to the committee.
This was the third reported attack from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in the past month, with the previous ones targeting Chinese nationals.
The Islamic Emirate previously said it assured Tajikistan it was ready to tighten border security and conduct joint investigations.
Business
Afghanistan’s first aluminum can factory launched in Herat with $120 million investment
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone of the “Pamir” aluminum can production company at the industrial parks of Herat on Thursday.
Afghanistan’s first aluminum can manufacturing plant was officially launched on Thursday in Herat province, marking a significant step toward industrial development and economic self-reliance.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone of the “Pamir” aluminum can production company at the industrial parks of Herat on Thursday.
According to officials, the Pamir factory is the first of its kind in Afghanistan and is being established with an investment of $120 million. The project will be built on 16 jeribs of land within Herat’s industrial zones.
Once completed, the factory is expected to create employment opportunities for around 1,700 Afghan citizens. Officials say the project will play a key role in boosting domestic production, reducing reliance on imports, and strengthening the national economy.
Authorities described the launch of the project as a clear sign of growing investment in the industrial sector and ongoing efforts to promote economic self-sufficiency in the country.
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Medvedev: IEA posed less threat to Russia than western-backed groups
He added that such organisations have consistently pursued one objective: “to break apart the multiethnic people of Russia.”
Russia’s Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) caused less harm to Russia than Western-backed civic organisations that, he claims, sought to undermine the country’s unity.
In an article published in the Russian journal Rodina, Medvedev wrote that while the IEA had long been designated as a terrorist organisation, its actions did not inflict the same level of damage on Russia as what he described as Western-supported institutions operating under the banner of academic or humanitarian work.
“Let us be honest: the Taliban (IEA) movement, long listed as a terrorist organisation, has caused modern Russia far less damage than all those pseudo-scientific institutions whose aim is to dismantle our country under the guise of aiding the oppressed,” Medvedev stated.
He added that such organisations have consistently pursued one objective: “to break apart the multiethnic people of Russia.”
Medvedev’s remarks come amid a shift in Russia’s official stance toward Afghanistan. In April, Russia’s Supreme Court suspended the ban on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had previously been included on the country’s list of terrorist organisations.
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