Today, Saturday, Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, discussed with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, and inspected the places of residence of Afghan refugees in Doha, while the United Nations is holding an international conference after 9 days to donate to Afghanistan, which It faces an "imminent humanitarian catastrophe," according to the United Nations.
Griffiths and the Qatari Foreign Minister discussed in Doha the coordination between Doha and the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stressed his country's support for international humanitarian efforts, and its commitment to cooperating with the United Nations in humanitarian affairs.
Last March, Qatar signed an agreement to establish the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the country.
Earlier today, Qatar's ambassador to Kabul, Saeed bin Mubarak Al-Khayarin, said - in a statement to Al Jazeera - that a Qatari team arrived five days ago to Afghanistan to operate the safe humanitarian headquarters, and the flow of aid continued to Kabul Airport.
The Qatari ambassador's statement came in conjunction with the arrival of a Qatari plane carrying 15 tons of food and humanitarian aid to the airport.
On August 15, the Taliban announced their control of the capital, Kabul, and its international airport, coinciding with the withdrawal of the last US soldier from Afghanistan after more than two decades of war.
American finance
In a related context, aides in the US Congress said that it is likely that Congress will fund the United Nations agencies and other agencies that provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, but that there is virtually no opportunity for it to directly fund a new Afghan government led by the Taliban.
The United States has been one of the main financiers of Afghanistan since its invasion in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime, and Washington has allocated about $130 billion in the areas of security, governance, development and humanitarian needs.
In response to Western countries restricting greatly their financial aid to Afghanistan, the Taliban announced that they would head east, mainly to China, to obtain the funds and investments needed to revive the Afghan economy.
US congressional aides say there is virtually no chance that Congress will directly fund a new Afghan government led by the Taliban
On the other hand, the United Nations is holding an international conference in Geneva on September 13 to stave off what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as an “imminent humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, and explained - in a tweet - that he would seek a rapid and steady increase in funding for humanitarian relief, We want the international community to unite and support the Afghan people."
famine threat
Aid agencies say many Afghans were struggling to feed their families in a severe drought long before the Taliban seized power last month, and millions may now face starvation as the country is isolated and the economy collapses.
On the other hand, the American news website Axios quoted European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson as saying that thousands of Afghans are waiting inside US bases in Germany, Italy and Spain, and that these countries want to know if they will be transferred to the United States. , before the three European countries commit to resettling more Afghan refugees.
Axios added that EU leaders do not want a repeat of the migrant crisis triggered by the Syrian war, which prompted 1.3 million people to seek asylum in Europe in 2015 alone.
A spokesman for the US military command in Europe, Chuck Pritchard, told the US news site that as of Friday morning, there were approximately 17,000 Afghans in US military sites in Germany, 2,500 in Italy, and 1,800 in Spain.