The UN has requested a record $5 billion to fund humanitarian aid in Afghanistan this year and secure a future for the country threatened with humanitarian disaster.

It is only an emergency solution, but “the fact is that without (this aid plan), there will be no future” for Afghanistan, said Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, during a press conference in Geneva on Monday.

The UN needs 4. 4 billion. dollars from donor countries to fund humanitarian needs in Afghanistan this year. This is the largest amount ever requested for a single country, the UN said in a statement.

The amount will be used to distribute food and support agriculture, to finance health services, treatment of malnutrition, emergency shelter, access to drinking water and sanitation, and education.

Some 22 million people, more than half of Afghanistan‘s population, need this aid.

The UN still needs 623 million. dollars extra to provide assistance to the 5. 7 million Afghan refugees living in five neighbouring countries, mainly in Iran and Pakistan.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned that “if the country collapses, (. . . ) then we‘ll see a much larger output. And this population movement will be difficult to manage in the region and beyond, because it will not stop in the region. ”

No money for the Taliban

Since August, the Taliban have been in power in Afghanistan, having ousted the government after the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country after 20 years.

The sanctions regime adopted to persuade the Islamists to make concessions has plunged the country – already heavily dependent on international aid – into an economic crisis. This has been further exacerbated by the drought that has been affecting Afghanistan for several years.

To reassure donors, Griffiths insisted that the funds raised would not go through the Taliban, but would be used directly by the 160 or so NGOs and UN agencies operating in the country.

The UN Security Council‘s decision in December to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid for a year and goodwill gestures on the part of the United States helped to reassure financial actors, who had stopped trading with the country for fear of sanctions, leaving Afghanistan without the liquidity necessary for the functioning of the state.

Civil servants, teachers, health workers often remain unpaid for months.

De facto dialogue

At a time when the international community is still looking for effective means to put pressure on the Taliban to improve the human rights situation, especially women‘s rights, Grady explained that this assistance “will also create a space for dialogue with the Taliban, which is valuable“.

“Our colleagues in the field talk to them every day, of course they talk about access, traditions, needs, but also about women‘s work, the return of girls to school, the rights of minorities,” he explained.

“We have to maintain this space because, for the moment, the political side is lagging behind,” Grandi added, admitting that it will take time “to reach stability and, who knows, maybe some form of normalisation“.