Unfreeze Afghan funds

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the United States and the World Bank to unfreeze Afghan funds, locked since the Taliban's return to power, to prevent "the nightmare unfolding in Afghanistan" from getting worse.

The Taliban yesterday urged Washington to heed the UN chief's call.

"The United States must respond positively to the international voice and release Afghan capital," the Taliban government's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Washington has taken control of nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank. The IMF and World Bank have suspended activities in Afghanistan, withholding aid as well as $340 million in new reserves issued by the IMF in August.

"We must... Rapidly inject liquidity into the economy and avoid a meltdown that would lead to poverty, hunger and destitution for millions," Guterres told reporters in New York on Thursday.

After the Taliban hardline Islamist movement seized power in mid-August as the United States ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the country has found itself on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Aid agencies and the UN have estimated that more than half of the nation's 38 million population is expected to face hunger this winter. An estimated 4.7 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, including 1.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition, according to aid agencies.

Speaking to reporters two days after the UN said it needs $5 billion in aid for Afghanistan in 2022, Guterres called on Washington to take the lead in helping the country avoid a meltdown "because the major part of the world financial system works in dollars."

"I hope the remaining resources - more that $1.2 billion" from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) "will become available to help Afghanistan's people survive the winter, Guterres told journalists.

Many Western nations have also largely suspended their assistance to Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries.