ICRC chief says Afghanistan’s most pressing need is cash

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer said this week that Afghanistan’s main problem is not hunger but rather the lack of cash due to economic sanctions.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, in Dubai, Maurer said Afghanistan is facing a looming humanitarian crisis as aid organizations struggle with ways to pay doctors, nurses and others on the ground because there is currently no way to transfer salaries to bank accounts there.

Maurer’s comments echoed those of the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan, who warned this week that the country is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and that its collapsing economy is heightening the risk of extremism.

The AP reported that the ICRC is temporarily carrying in bags of cash to Afghanistan and converting dollars into the local currency, the Afghani, in order to pay some of its staffers.

The ICRC has been able to do this with regulatory approval by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, AP reported adding that the ICRC also has an agreement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to allow donor-funded payments to pass through the ICRC and bypass the IEA government.

“The main problem in Afghanistan is not hunger. The main problem is the lack of cash to pay salaries to deliver social services which have existed before,” Maurer said.

“Let’s not forget that most of these medical doctors, nurses, operators of water systems and electricity systems are still the same people. It is the leadership which has changed, but not these people,” he added.

Maurer said humanitarian organizations cannot “fix an implosion of a whole country.” He said what’s needed is an agreement on a sufficient injection of liquidity — something he believes is possible without formally recognizing the IEA government, AP reported.

The ICRC’s budget until mid-2022 has increased from $95 million to roughly $163 million to address Afghanistan’s increasingly urgent needs.