Status: 06.09.2021 4:05 a.m.
The Islamists had promised that aid workers would be able to move freely around the country. The United Nations announced. Development Minister Müller wants to continue sending aid to Afghanistan.
According to the UN, the Taliban have undertaken to ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan. The Islamists had promised in talks that aid workers would be able to move freely and safely in the country, said a UN spokesman.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, was in Kabul on Sunday for talks with the Taliban leadership. Among other things, he met the Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
In need of assistence
Griffiths then stated that the international community felt an obligation to provide “impartial and independent humanitarian aid” in Afghanistan. He called on the Taliban to respect in particular the rights of women in general and aid workers in particular. Taliban spokesman Suhail Schaheen said on Twitter that the Taliban thanked the UN for the “promised continuation of humanitarian aid for the Afghan people” and assured them “cooperation and the provision of the necessary facilities”.
After the radical Islamic Taliban came to power, around half of the Afghan population is at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe, according to the UN. Afghanistan was previously heavily dependent on humanitarian aid. Around 40 percent of the gross domestic product is financed from abroad.
Development Minister wants to continue to help
At the end of the week, the foreign ministers of the EU countries agreed on five conditions for limited cooperation with the Taliban. The “operational engagement” with the new rulers is to be gradually increased when the Taliban form a government with the involvement of other political forces in the country and enable people in need of protection to leave the country. In addition, they should ensure compliance with human rights, the rule of law and freedom of the press, enable humanitarian aid and guarantee that Afghanistan does not become a base for internationally operating terrorist groups again. The move was also criticized from within the Bundestag.
In the “Rheinische Post”, however, Development Minister Gerd Müller held out the prospect of further aid for Afghanistan and warned of the approaching winter: “We must now try to send help by all means and continue to try to get those out of the country by all means who are in danger. ” He had discussed with the President of the World Health Organization WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “that we support the planned airlift of the WHO to supply hospitals with medicines and vaccines”.