U.S. nonetheless largest donor to Afghans regardless of Taliban takeover

The U.S. authorities stays the largest donor to Afghanistan even within the wake of the Taliban’s takeover, in line with an inspector normal’s report launched late Tuesday.

Some $2.1 billion has flowed to Afghanistan since August of 2021, when the U.S. withdrew the final of its troops and the Taliban toppled the American-backed authorities and took management.

And whereas U.S. officers say the cash is meant to be going to help Afghans and never feed into the Taliban’s treasury, the particular inspector normal for Afghan reconstruction mentioned officers can’t say for positive that the Taliban isn’t siphoning a number of the cash away from the teams the U.S. is funding.

“Since the Taliban takeover, the U.S. government has sought to continue supporting the Afghan people without providing benefits for the Taliban regime. However, it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars,” mentioned Inspector General John F. Sopko.

He pointed to reviews that the Taliban levies price fees on nongovernmental organizations nonetheless working within the nation. And in some areas, Taliban officers have ordered NGOs to supply help to Taliban personnel earlier than others.

The new report mentioned the State Department doesn’t know the way a lot help has been siphoned off in that method.

U.S. help contains assist with mining and agriculture, schooling, human rights and well being packages.

After a 20-year battle effort, President Biden oversaw the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021. Without U.S. help, the federal government collapsed and the Taliban, which the U.S. had ousted a long time earlier than, retook management.

Since then, the administration has struggled with how a lot the U.S. ought to be concerned.

Indeed, the administration nonetheless hasn’t determined whether or not to acknowledge the Taliban because the rightful authorities of Afghanistan.

The nation may desperately use the assistance. The U.N. says Afghanistan has the worst meals insecurity downside on the planet, with greater than half the nation counting on World Food Program help in 2022. This 12 months is predicted to be even worse.

But the chance of propping up the repressive Taliban can be nice.

After the Taliban issued an edict late final 12 months banning NGOs from using ladies, the U.S. started a assessment of its packages to see how the edict was affecting operations. The assessment continues to be happening however officers imagine they’ve in lots of situations discovered “workarounds” to make sure feminine assist employees are nonetheless on the job.

The new report comes simply weeks after Mr. Sopko testified to Congress about his work monitoring the U.S. withdrawal and ongoing engagement with Afghanistan.

At that point he warned lawmakers the State Department was refusing to cooperate in his mission. He mentioned the division was withholding info he’s allowed to see.

Both Democrats and Republicans within the listening to referred to as on the division to do higher.