KABUL: The Russian invasion of Ukraine must not make the world forget Afghanistan, the UN refugee chief said, warning that ignoring its humanitarian needs could be very risky.
UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi, who is on a four day visit to Afghanistan, said the international community must continue to engage with the Taliban authorities as Afghanistan desperately needs humanitarian assistance.
“The whole attention of the world at the moment is focussed on Ukraine,” Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told AFP at a UN compound in the Afghan capital.
“But my message coming here is, don’t forget the other situations, where attention and resources are needed and Afghanistan is one of them.
“The risks of distraction are very high, very high ... Humanitarian assistance has to flow no matter how many other crises compete with Afghanistan around the world.”
Donor countries, UN agencies and Afghan civil society are set to take part in an online fund raising event this month. The summit would focus on delivering food, shelter and health services, particularly for women and girls.
The Taliban seized power on August 15 amid a hasty withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, and since then the country’s humanitarian crisis has deepened.
The United Nations and other global aid agencies have said that more than half of Afghanistan’s 38 million people are facing hunger this winter.
In January, the UN made its biggest-ever single-country aid appeal, calling for $5 billion to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
But Grandi said that the war in Ukraine has already started to make it difficult to raise funds for Afghanistan.
The UNHCR itself had made an appeal of $340 million for Afghanistan for 2022 but so far has managed to raise only about $100 million, he said.
“So, we need to push because the needs are the same now as they were in September” just after the Taliban takeover, Grandi said.
“Generous response has to continue” for Afghanistan, he said, a country that has millions of its citizens living as refugees in neighbouring countries like Iran and Pakistan.
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