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U.N. has millions in Afghanistan bank, but cannot use it
The United Nations has about $135 million in the bank in Afghanistan but is unable to use it because the Islamic Emirate-run central bank cannot convert it to the afghani currency, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.
Abdallah al Dardari, head of the U.N. Development Programme in Afghanistan, said the United Nations had taken the U.S. dollars into the country and deposited it with the Afghanistan International Bank “with a clear promise from the central bank that fresh cash will be automatically converted to afghanis.”
“This did not happen,” he told the ACAMS Global Sanctions Space Summit, adding that UNDP itself has “$30 million stuck at AIB that I cannot convert to afghanis and without afghanis as you can imagine, we cannot implement all our programs.”
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), who seized power in August, banned the use of foreign currency in a country where U.S. dollars were common.
The IEA has long been under international sanctions, which the United Nations and aid groups say are now hindering humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, where more than half the country’s 39 million people suffer extreme hunger and the economy, education and social services face collapse.
Billions of dollars in Afghan central bank reserves and foreign development aid have been frozen to prevent it from falling into IEA hands. International banks are wary of breaching sanctions, leaving the United Nations and aid groups struggling to get enough money into the country.
Liquidity is also a problem. Al Dardari told Reuters in November that while there was about $4 billion worth of afghanis in the economy, only about $500 million worth was in circulation.
The United Nations and the World Bank are discussing a possible swap facility, aid groups and U.N. officials have said.
Al Dardari said on Thursday that this would allow cash for humanitarian operations to be paid into a mechanism abroad and then afghanis could be collected “from major traders and mobile companies from inside Afghanistan.”
He also said lessons could be learned from a program in Myanmar, where electronic payment systems bypassed the central bank. Myanmar’s military have been hit with a raft of sanctions by the United States and others since a coup a year ago.
Abdul Rahman Munir, the Deputy Minister for Counter-Narcotics at the Ministry of Interior, said on Saturday at the meeting of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Drugs (CARICC) in Uzbekistan that the cultivation, trafficking, and sale of narcotics in Afghanistan have “almost dropped to zero.”
Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, said in a statement that Munir described the Islamic Emirate’s ongoing counter-narcotics campaign in Afghanistan as “a milestone of achievements.”
At the meeting, Munir emphasized cooperation among member countries and called on them to assist Afghan farmers in creating alternative livelihood opportunities so that the phenomenon of narcotics can be completely eradicated from Afghanistan.
Australia on Saturday announced financial sanctions and travel bans on four senior officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), citing what it described as a worsening human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the targeted officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law.”
Australia had been part of the NATO-led international mission in Afghanistan before withdrawing its troops in August 2021.
Wong said the sanctions target three IEA ministers and the IEA’s chief justice, accusing them of restricting women’s and girls’ access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and participation in public life.
The officials include Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice; Neda Mohammad Nadeem, Minister of Higher Education; Abdul Hakim Sharei, Minister of Justice; and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
According to Wong, the measures fall under Australia’s new sanctions framework, which allows Canberra to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban (IEA), targeting the oppression of the Afghan people.”
Responding to the announcement, Saif-ul-Islam Khaibar, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, criticized the sanctions.
He claimed that countries imposing such measures “are themselves violators of women’s rights” and called Australia’s move an insult to the religious and cultural values of Afghans.
Khaibar added that the IEA has “stopped rights violations of hundreds of thousands of women over the past four years.”
During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi, India and Russia issued a joint statement highlighting their close coordination on Afghanistan. Both sides appreciated the ongoing dialogue between their respective Security Councils and underscored the significance of the Moscow Format meetings in promoting regional stability.
The leaders welcomed counter-terrorism efforts targeting international terrorist groups, including ISIS, ISKP, and their affiliates, expressing confidence in a comprehensive and effective approach to combating terrorism in Afghanistan. They also stressed the urgent need to ensure uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.
India and Russia have maintained close ties on regional security, particularly concerning developments in Afghanistan following the Islamic Emirate’s return to power in 2021. The Moscow Format, a diplomatic platform including Afghanistan’s neighbors, has played a key role in facilitating dialogue on peace, stability, and counter-terrorism in the region.
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