ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister has reiterated the need for the U.S. to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets to “prevent an economic meltdown” in the country.
In a meeting with the Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and a visiting Afghan delegation, Imran Khan “underscored the urgent need to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and facilitation of banking transactions to prevent an economic meltdown,” according to a statement by the premier’s office.
Khan was referring to the over $9.5 billion of the Afghan central bank’s reserves that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has blocked since the Taliban swept to power on 15 August.
Earlier in the day, Khan met the special envoys of China, Russia, U.S. and Pakistan, who were in Islamabad for a meeting of the Troika Plus group on Afghanistan.
The call by Khan came as the World Health Organization (WHO) says the international community should not turn its back on Afghanistan, warning that at least one million children are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition as temperatures drop in the war-ravaged country by the end of this year.
Around 3.2 million children are expected to suffer from severe malnutrition in Afghanistan by the end of 2021, a WHO spokesperson told Geneva-based journalists by telephone from the capital Kabul on Friday.
“It’s an uphill battle as starvation grips the country,” Margaret Harris said. “The world must not and cannot afford to turn its back on Afghanistan.” She added that nighttime temperatures are falling below zero degrees Celsius, warning that colder temperatures can make the old and the young more vulnerable to other diseases.
Aid agencies have warned of famine in Afghanistan as a drought coincides with a failing economy in the country following the withdrawal of Western financial support in the aftermath of a Taliban takeover in August. The health sector has been hit hard as many healthcare workers are fleeing due to unpaid salaries.
Harris further noted that people are chopping down trees in some places to provide fuel for the hospitals amid widespread shortages. The WHO official did not have information as to how many children had already lost their lives due to malnutrition but described “wards filled with tiny little children,” including with a seven-month-old baby who was “smaller than a newborn.”
There are increasing cases of measles in Afghanistan with the WHO date showing 24,000 clinical cases had so far been reported.