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Children pose for photographs in front of their tents at a camp for internally displaced families in Panjwai district of Kandahar province on March 31, 2021. (Photo by JAVED TANVEER / AFP) (Photo by JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images)

International

United states softens sanctions on afghanistan to facilitate flow of aid to avoid crisis

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Afghanistan is on “the verge of a dramatic humanitarian disaster” and has decided to engage the Taliban in order to help the country’s people.

The United States has softened sanctions imposed on Afghanistan on humanitarian grounds. The United States has announced two exemptions to its sanctions imposed on Afghanistan in a bid to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the conflict-wracked Taliban-controlled country.

The provisions allow the US government, aid groups and international organisations to engage in the provision of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan or other activities that support basic human needs there, the US Treasury said in a statement.

They also allow “certain transactions related to the exportation or reexportation of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices,” the statement said.

“Treasury will continue to work with financial institutions, international organizations and the nongovernmental organization community to ease the flow of critical resources, like agricultural goods, medicine, and other essential supplies, to people in need,” said Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

However, Washington will continue “upholding and enforcing our sanctions against the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and other sanctioned entities.”

Mounting economic crisis

Faced with sanctions and a cutoff in foreign aid following the Taliban’s takeover of the country last month, Afghanistan is facing a mounting economic crisis as fuel and food prices rise and cash runs short.

The United Nations said that at the start of the year more than 18 million people — about half of Afghanistan’s population — require aid amid the second drought in four years.

Children pose for photographs in front of their tents at a camp for internally displaced families in Panjwai district of Kandahar province on March 31, 2021.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Afghanistan is on “the verge of a dramatic humanitarian disaster” and has decided to engage the Taliban in order to help the country’s people.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank suspended activities in the country following the Taliban takeover, which meant withholding aid as well as $340 million in new reserves issued by the IMF last month.

Washington is also blocking access to much of the $9 billion in Afghan reserves held overseas, fuelling the cash crunch that the ousted government’s central bank chief warns could create an economic crisis.

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I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.

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