Secretary General Ensures UN Continues to Distribute Aid in Afghanistan, But Funding Is Dwindling

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. (Wikimedia Commons/US Mission/Eric Bridiers)

JAKARTA - The United Nations (UN) will remain in Afghanistan to deliver aid to the country's millions of citizens in need, although the Taliban limits its female staff, funding is dwindling, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.

Secretary General Guterres, speaking to the media after a meeting of envoys from more than 20 countries in Doha, Qatar to discuss a common international approach to Afghanistan, also said fears for the country's stability were growing.

"We stayed and distributed aid, we were determined to find the necessary conditions to continue distributing aid... The participants agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement," said Guterres, quoted by Reuters, May 3.

The ban on female UN staff in Afghanistan signaled by the Taliban authorities last month was a violation of human rights, he said.

"We will never remain silent in the face of this unprecedented systemic attack on the rights of women and girls," said the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said threatening or further isolating the Taliban authorities was not a pragmatic approach for countries seeking to alleviate Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis, or ease restrictions on women and girls.

"What is the alternative? That is my question to those who claim that (disengagement) is possible," he told Reuters in an interview, adding that threats against the Taliban since they took control of Afghanistan 20 months ago had made the movement "more ideological."

"40 million ordinary Afghans... are on the receiving end of the reality created by your decisions. And we know that in the last 20 months, no one has served them well," he said.

Separately, Secretary-General Guterres warned of a sizable shortfall for humanitarian aid this year, of which just over 6 percent has been funded, short of the $4.6 billion required for a country where most of its people live in poverty.

He emphasized that the meeting was not aimed at recognizing the Taliban government, which has never been done by any country officially. He also said he was open to meeting Taliban officials if there was a "right moment to do so, but today is not the right moment".

The Taliban government says it respects women's rights according to their interpretation of religious law, that Afghanistan's territory will not be used for militancy or violence against other countries.