Status: 04.09.2021 02:34 a.m.
The UN is planning a conference on humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Geneva on September 13, under the leadership of UN Secretary General Guterres. It is about access to the land and the financing of aid.
In view of the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the United Nations has announced a high-level aid conference for the country. The meeting at ministerial level is due to take place in Geneva on September 13th in the presence of UN Secretary General António Guterres. “The conference will seek a rapid increase in funding so that the life-saving humanitarian operation can continue,” it said.
According to the UN, there is otherwise a threat of a humanitarian catastrophe in the country, which Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) also fears in the coming winter. Almost half of the 38 million people in Afghanistan needed humanitarian aid. According to the UN, one in three Afghans does not know where their next meal will come from. Almost half of all children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished in the next 12 months.
Guterres recently called for additional food, temporary accommodation and medical supplies to be brought into the country as a matter of urgency in view of the severe drought and the impending harsh winter in Afghanistan. He called on all those involved to enable safe and unhindered access to essential relief supplies and for all humanitarian aid workers. According to the UN, the food reserves of the World Food Program should last until the end of September.
Reports of heavy fighting between the Taliban and opponents in the Punjir Valley
In Afghanistan, the Taliban and its opponents reportedly fought fierce fighting in the Pandjir Valley on Friday. A spokesman for the resistance movement against the Islamists said the troops led by the Taliban opponent Ahmed Massoud were involved in “heavy” fighting with the Taliban. Shots of joy could be heard in Kabul on Friday evening as rumor spread that the Taliban had conquered the Pandjir Valley. A resident of the valley denied this to AFP by phone.
Videos were distributed on Twitter accounts loyal to the Taliban, apparently showing tanks and other heavy military equipment captured by the Taliban in the valley. Both sides reported on Twitter that the important Parjan district had been temporarily taken by the Taliban. These reports could not be independently verified.
The Pandjir Valley was a stronghold of resistance against the Taliban in the 1990s and never fell under the control of the Islamists. After the Taliban seized power again three weeks ago, another resistance movement formed in the valley under the leadership of the son of the legendary Afghan warlord and Taliban opponent Ahmed Shah Massoud. Ahmed Massud’s father had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and during the Taliban’s rule between 1996 and 2001 he fought against the Islamists. On September 9, 2001, he was killed by two suicide bombers from the Al-Qaeda terrorist network – two days before the attacks in the United States that led to the international military operation in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Blinken plans to visit Ramstein in the next few days
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile plans to visit the American military base Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate in the next few days. Blinken said on Friday in Washington that he would first travel to the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday. From there he will then leave for Ramstein Air Base, where he will speak to Afghan refugees and American personnel, among other things.
During his visit to Germany, he will also meet with Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) and hold a video conference with other official colleagues on Afghanistan.
The Ramstein Air Force Base currently serves as the US hub for the evacuation of Afghan refugees who were flown from their homeland after the Taliban came to power. In Doha, on the other hand, the USA has initially housed its diplomatic team for Afghanistan after it had given up its diplomatic presence there with the withdrawal of all US troops from Kabul.