Senior members of the Taliban, the governing regime of Afghanistan, are asking the international community for financial support to overcome the nation's economic crisis and prevent a new mass wave of refugees.
Taliban Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai has even said that it is the responsibility of the Americans to provide financial support as he claims they have blocked billions of dollars at the Afghan Central Bank.
Stanizaki made the speech begging for money at a United Nations conference held to mark international migrants' day. He said:
"The impact of the frozen funds is on the common people and not Taliban authorities."
"If the political and economic situation doesn't change, there will be more migration."
Thus far, the United States has refused to release $9 billion worth of central bank reserves it secured before leaving the country earlier in 2021.
Afghanistan is currently facing huge unemployment, inflation, poverty, and the potential for mass famine in the months and years ahead as the result of decades of near non-stop war and the dramatic retaking of the country by the Taliban. Millions have already fled the country to avoid the extreme Islamist regime and their dire living conditions.
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after US and allied forces decided to leave the country after almost 20 years of occupation. The central Asian state had been invaded in 2001 by US and NATO forces in response to the 9/11 attacks, and the Taliban regime was soon removed from power. However, the conservative Islamist group waged a guerrilla war that lasted almost two decades. As the US and NATO forces left, the Afghan Army collapsed almost instantaneously as a result of a final Taliban push.
While the Taliban have claimed they will run the country in a more liberal fashion than they did in the 1990s, there are widespread reports of women being denied education, forced to wear burkas, and Taliban opponents being tortured and executed.
The country is now in a state of complete ruin and remains one of the poorest nations on Earth.
[Based on reporting by: Reuters]
COMMENTS