The United Kingdom pledged on Wednesday (30.03.2022) to donate an additional 286 million pounds ($375 million) to the people of Afghanistan, ahead of a conference it organized with the United Nations on Thursday to raise more than $4,000 million.
“This new funding will be distributed through trusted UN partners and NGOs. No funding will go directly to the Taliban,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
The UK, which had already donated the same amount to Afghanistan in the 2021-2022 financial year, thus renewed its contribution.
According to the head of British diplomacy, the aid has served more than 60 hospitals, and medical care has been provided to more than 300,000 people. Some 4.5 million people were allowed to receive emergency food assistance through the World Food Program (WFP) and 6.1 million people were helped thanks to the United Nations Humanitarian Fund for Afghanistan.
In a statement, she said Truss would pledge at Thursday’s conference to put girls’ education at the center of Britain’s response and would urge the Taliban to reverse its decision to ban girls from attending secondary school.
The United Nations revealed in January that it needed $4.4 billion from donor countries to fund humanitarian needs in Afghanistan this year, the largest sum ever required for a single country.
According to London, the United Nations estimates that about 10 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. (afp)
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