Taliban urges aid groups to cut administrative costs
The Taliban administration has called on aid organisations and institutions to reduce their administrative costs so that a larger share of global aid can be directed to the people of Afghanistan, a request made amid rising humanitarian needs in parts of the country.
Nurodin Tarabi, head of the Taliban’s Disaster Preparedness Department, said that due to the impact of climate change, people’s need for humanitarian assistance, especially in remote areas, has increased. He called on countries, aid organisations and institutions implementing humanitarian projects to keep aid delivery separate from political issues.
Tarabi also claimed that the department he heads is a “completely non-political” body, adding that speed and transparency in its operations are priorities. He asked aid organisations to raise any problems they face with staff from his department, whether in the capital or in the provinces, directly with him so they can, in his words, be resolved as quickly as possible.
In another part of his remarks, the head of the Taliban administration’s Disaster Preparedness Department described mines and unexploded ordnance as a hidden threat to Afghanistan’s residents. He said the Taliban administration is determined to speed up mine clearance so that all of Afghanistan’s territory can be used.
Tarabi also claimed that if the budget for demining programmes had been properly spent in the past, Afghanistan would now have been cleared of mines. Afghanistan is among the countries where mines and unexploded ordnance remain a serious threat to civilians in various parts of the country, especially in areas affected by decades of war.
