Youths take pictures next to an Afghan flag on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15, 2021. — REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL/FILE PHOTO
“We need to give financial institutions and commercial partners legal assurance that they can work with humanitarian operators without fear of breaching sanctions,” said Mr. Guterres, noting that the 15-member council last month adopted a humanitarian exemption to UN sanctions tied to Afghanistan. In December, donors to a frozen World Bank-administered Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund agreed to transfer $280 million to the World Food Program and UN children’s agency UNICEF to support nutrition and health in Afghanistan. Guterres said the remaining $1.2 billion in the fund needed “to be freed up urgently to help Afghanistan’s people survive the winter.”
He told reporters that money could be deposited in the facility and “under certain conditions that cash could be made available to traders in Afghanistan,” though he said it was a stopgap measure because “it needs to be the central bank that has to be capacitated to discharge these functions.”
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