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UN urgently needs cash in Afghanistan, but struggles for solution

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(Last Updated On: October 29, 2021)

The United Nations cannot get enough cash into Afghanistan to deliver humanitarian aid to millions of people on the brink of starvation and is struggling to develop options to help stabilize the collapsing economy, U.N. officials said.

Ultimately political solutions are needed, a senior U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, an apparent reference to sanctions relief and for governments and institutions to free up billions of dollars of Afghan assets held overseas.

In the meantime U.N. agencies are scrambling to find ways to get large amounts of U.S. dollars into Afghanistan to combat a liquidity crisis that has taken hold since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) ousted the Western-backed government in August.

The U.N. official shared with Reuters some of the options being suggested.

The delivery of U.S. dollars to Afghanistan has stopped since the IEA seized power and if countries or international financial institutions don’t step up then the United Nations might have to fill the gap, said the official.

One suggested option is using Afghanistan International Bank, which could bring in and store money, but there are issues with insurance, the U.N. official said.

The United Nations is also aware that no one option will work and several avenues to get enough cash into Afghanistan are needed, the official said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the International Monetary Fund to agree on waivers or mechanisms to get money into Afghanistan. The IMF has blocked the IEA from accessing some $440 million in new emergency reserves.

Much of the Afghan central bank’s $10 billion in overseas assets have been frozen as well, most of it in the United States. The U.S. Treasury has said there are no plans to release the money.

“We need to work together to make the economy breathe again and to help people survive,” Guterres said on Wednesday. “Injecting liquidity into the Afghan economy can be done without violating international laws or compromising principles.”

The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan’s economy is on the brink of collapse and would likely further fuel a refugee crisis.

When asked about U.N. efforts to get cash into Afghanistan, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan, told reporters on Tuesday: “The U.N. collective is looking at what potential solutions we could have, but flying in money to the country is not on the table yet.”

“What we are using at the moment is the limited liquidity that is in the country,” she said. “But the longer this goes on … we’re finding it’s becoming more and more difficult.”

Some 8.7 million people are “one step away from starvation,” said McGroarty, adding: “There is a tsunami of destitution, incredible suffering and hunger spiraling out of control.”

The IEA is facing growing international pressure for an inclusive and representative Afghan government and to uphold human rights, particularly those of women and girls in return for international recognition and freeing up aid and reserves.

Donors and institutions are also seeking to avoid running afoul of U.N. and unilateral sanctions on the IEA.

The United Nations is appealing for countries “to provide humanitarian financial exemptions to allow funds to reach aid organizations in the country,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, without naming names.

U.N. agencies and aid groups are currently using informal money-moving networks – known as hawalas – and small amounts of cash in banks to pay staff salaries and for other smaller scale purchases, Dujarric told Reuters.

“These modalities are not sufficient for the large scale operations requiring cash payments or cash assistance in-country, however,” said Dujarric, adding that the United Nations was talking to international financial institutions to find a solution that would expand aid operations.

A key part of U.N. plans to inject money into Afghanistan is by providing cash directly to poor Afghan families.

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ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

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IPL: Sunrisers thump MI in record breaking match

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

It was raining records at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday with the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinching a 31-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 8 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Sunrisers’ batting rewrote the record books on a batting belter after the posted 277 for three.

SRH now have the highest team score in the history of the IPL – beating Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 263 for five from the 2013 season.

In reply, MI made a spirited effort, and at one stage, were contenders to do the near impossible. In the slog overs, the enormity of the target proved a bit too much, and SRH clinched victory, but not without numerous nervous moments.

To put into perspective the carnage we witnessed – Heinrich Klaasen’s 23-ball half-century was the slowest fifty of the SRH innings.

Travis Head, playing his first match for SRH, raced to the milestone in 18 balls. Abhishek Sharma got there even faster – in 16 balls – to record the quickest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL history.

While Sunrisers notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

The sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually however, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

As ESPNcricinfo reported, never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Thursday, March 28 : Match 9

Thursday’s match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur sees Rajasthan Royals go up against Delhi Capitals.

Fans in Afghanistan can tune in to Ariana Television to watch the match live from 6.30pm. Alternatively the match can be screened live on arianatelevision.com

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Magnitude 5.2 quake jolts Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, the National Center for Seismology reported.

The quake was at a depth of 70km and epicentered in the mountainous north-eastern area of Ashkāsham.

The jolt was felt across the region including in Kabul, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

In October last year, over 2,000 people were killed when four 6.3-magnitude earthquakes struck in Herat province.

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