TALIBAN URGE WORLD TO ASSIST AFGHANISTAN

Sun 19 September 2021:

A Taliban spokesman in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz has urged the international community to increase help to the country, emphasizing that the Taliban are not terrorists.

Provincial spokesman Matiullah Ruhani said aid could take the form of investment, reconstruction projects “or any kind of humanitarian support for the government or citizens of Afghanistan,” he told dpa in Kunduz, in a request directed to “the entire international community including Germany.”

The Taliban would “very much welcome” help, he said.

On August 8, the Taliban took control of Kunduz, the first of a sequence of quick advances that saw the group take control of the entire country.

The last US troops left Afghanistan at the end of August, bringing an end to a nearly two-decade-long military engagement.

Ruhani criticized the international community for supporting what he described as a “corrupt government” in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, but stopping its aid when the Taliban came to power.

The Taliban brought peace to Afghanistan, he said, adding, “we are not terrorists.”

Ruhani referred journalists to the transitional government in Kabul when asked about the Taliban’s policy toward women.

Ruhani said only that the Taliban valued all citizens, women and men alike.

Prior to the Taliban takeover, 80% of the Afghan government’s budget was funded by the U.S. and other Western donors. Forty percent of its GDP came from international aid. Roughly half of the country lived below the poverty line.

Out of its population of 40 million, 14 million in Afghanistan are food insecure. The U.N.’s World Food Programme says $200 million is needed to sustain its operations in the country until the end of this year.

Earlier this week, international donors at a U.N. conference in Geneva including the U.S. and European states pledged more than $1 billion in aid to war-ravaged Afghanistan. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the people of Afghanistan are facing the collapse of an entire country — all at once.”

He warned that food supplies in the country could run out by the end of September, and stressed that engagement with the Taliban government would be necessary.

(with agencies)

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