UN plans to pay $6 million to Taliban for security of staff, offices: Report
The United Nations (UN) is proposing to pay nearly $6 million to the Taliban government no sooner than next year for the protection of the UN staff and facilities in Kabul, a report says.
According to a UN document reviewed by Reuters, the proposed funds would be paid next year to the Taliban Interior Ministry, mostly to subsidize the monthly salaries of Taliban fighters guarding UN facilities and to provide them a monthly food allowance.
The funds would be paid under an expansion of an accord with the former Afghan government, the document shows.
The proposed funds would bolster the Taliban’s ability to protect some 3,500 UN personnel in the Afghan capital, and 10 field offices.
“The United Nations has a duty as an employer to reinforce and, where necessary, supplement the capacity of host states in circumstances where UN personnel work in areas of insecurity,” deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq wrote in an email to Reuters.
Afghanistan, a country of 39 million, is facing what UN agencies have described as “one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.”
Since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in mid-August, the US and its allies have imposed sanctions on the country and deprived Afghans of any aid and assistance. Washington has also seized nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank.
The Taliban have repeatedly called for the release of the assets.
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