The world community must make efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and not shift the responsibility for the situation in the country to each other, Gennady Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, said on Monday, speaking at a conference on economic assistance to Afghanistan.
"Humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and its post-conflict reconstruction are now coming to the forefront. The socio-economic tensions, exacerbated, among other things, by the COVID-19 pandemic, are a cause for concern. We believe that in such conditions the international community must work together and not shift responsibility for the situation to one another. Afghanistan is traditionally among the recipients of Russian humanitarian aid, including through the UN. In particular, in 2018-2021 under the World Food Program (WFP) we provided humanitarian food aid to Kabul in the amount of $6 million," he said.
"We will monitor how the promises of the new government will be implemented in practice," Gatilov pointed out, drawing attention to the fact that the Russian side "has consistently advocated the due consideration of the interests of all ethno-political forces in Afghanistan in building the new state."
"Taking into consideration the large number of Afghans, who wish to leave the country, we should not allow complication of the migration situation in the region and in the world. We are concerned about the possibility of terrorist and extremist elements penetrating into the territory of Afghanistan's neighbors, especially in Central Asia. We believe that the international community, first of all, traditional Western donors of Kabul should provide effective help to the people of this country (Afghanistan) in order to reduce or fully stop the migration flows," the Russian permanent representative added.
UN secretary-general António Guterres convened a conference on Monday in Geneva on economic aid to Afghanistan. As previously announced by deputy secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths, its goal is to raise $606 million to help the people of that country over the next four months.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN mission's special coordinator in the country on humanitarian issues, estimates that Afghanistan may run out of food supplies by the end of September. Now one-third of Afghans don't know for sure when they will be able to eat next. Guterres has said repeatedly in recent weeks that Afghanistan would face a humanitarian catastrophe if the country is not helped urgently.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS