With foreign funds frozen, Afghan aid groups stuck in limbo

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A month after the fall of Kabul, the question of how the world will help Afghanistan’s impoverished people without propping up their Taliban rulers grows more urgent by the day. Donor countries have pledged $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid through the United Nations. But attempts by Western governments and international financial institutions to deprive the Taliban-controlled government of funds until its intentions are clearer also has Afghan’s most vulnerable citizens hurting. With the Afghan government severed from the international banking system, aid groups say they are struggling to get emergency relief, basic services and funds to a population at risk of starvation, unemployment and the coronavirus after 20 years of war.