Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), on Tuesday said that the organization cannot abandon 40 million Afghans “simply on the principle of moral outrage”.

“We are essentially engaged in a form of cooperation without recognition and trying to make the best possible for an increasingly desperate Afghan population,” Achim Steiner said in a series of tweets.

“The UN is unequivocal about the fundamental  human rights that we expect a country like Afghanistan to uphold,” including the rights of girls to attend educational institutions. 

But, at the same time, international organizations are trying to help ordinary Afghans navigate “a highly informal survival economy,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan said in a series of tweets the deepening economic crisis is driving millions of Afghans into poverty.

“In Kabul, I still see more people selling their household items in order to earn money and put food on the table,” Fillion tweeted.

He said: “We can’t contain such a crisis without the full mobilization of the international community.”