The US has eased its restrictions on mainstream humanitarian aid reaching famine-ridden Afghanistan and backed a UN security council resolution exempting most aid from the threat of sanctions.
The US Treasury followed up the UN resolution by broadening the definition of permitted humanitarian assistance to include education – including salary payments to teachers – and to permit a broader use of US funds received by aid organisations working inside Afghanistan.
The US has been trying to use aid as a lever to force the Taliban, who seized power in August, not to suppress women’s rights, including access to education.
But aid groups said that in seeking to pressurise the Taliban, the US was at risk of driving ordinary Afghans towards starvation.
Aid agencies have for months complained the continued unqualified US sanctions on Taliban leaders and entities meant it was impossible to provide aid into Taliban-run Afghanistan through normal banking channels, but the US-backed UN resolution clarified that aid to relieve humanitarian needs would not need to be treated as money directed to the Taliban.
The resolution’s careful wording has been the subject of lengthy negotiations in New York, and was in part resolved by an agreement that the mechanism will be reviewed after a year, and include tight reporting requirements.
The resolution states humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan are not in violation of sanctions but aid agencies are strongly advised to use reasonable efforts to minimise any benefits accruing to the sanctioned entities.
It remains to be seen how the US Treasury will police the less stringent regime and how quickly money in the World Bank and UN trust fund set aside for Afghanistan can be released. The US is unlikely to release up to $9bn (£6.7bn) in frozen Afghan assets since this would be taken by the Taliban. Efforts by countries such as Qatar to persuade the Taliban to relax the ban on women working and girls going to school have been largely fruitless.
Martin Griffiths, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, welcomed the resolution, saying: “This milestone decision will enable urgently needed humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods in Afghanistan. It is evidence of how seriously member states take the shocking levels of need and suffering in the country.
“This humanitarian exception will allow organisations to implement the work we have planned, and it will give legal assurances to the financial institutions and commercial actors we rely on to engage with humanitarian operators. The road ahead in Afghanistan is neither easy nor straightforward.”
In welcoming the resolution, the US highlighted the regular reporting requirements by the UN and the need for aid agencies to show due diligence that aid was not being diverted to those subject to sanctions. But the US also gave a broad definition of permitted aid including “shelter and settlement assistance, food security, education, livelihoods support, energy, water, sanitation, health including Covid-19-related assistance, nutrition, and hygiene”.
Britain’s UN envoy, Barbara Woodward, said: “This resolution will help save lives, by ensuring that the 1988 sanctions regime (pdf) poses no obstacle to the provision of humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan. This directly responds to what the humanitarian community told us they needed”.
David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee, said: “The humanitarian exception to sanctions on the Taliban is a critical step that will support humanitarian actors like the IRC to scale up and deliver lifesaving services to Afghans in need without fearing legal repercussions. This couldn’t come soon enough as 9 million people in Afghanistan are marching toward famine and Afghan families are bracing for an extremely tough winter.”
He added: “The suspension of foreign development aid flows to Afghanistan– which previously propped up 75% of all government spending – has wiped out the government’s ability to pay public servants and deliver desperately needed public services, including basic healthcare, to millions of Afghans.
