Tajikistan President wants increase in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon has met with the EU special representative for Afghanistan Tomas Niklasson and emphasized the need for an increase in humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan, Afghan media reported citing Tajikistan President's official website.

According to Khaama Press, Emamoli Rahman and Tomas Niklasson met in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe on Friday. Niklasson was in the country on a working visit.

As per the website, both discussed Afghanistan's current political, military, and socioeconomic situation which directly affects the situation in the region.

The call on the rising need for Afghanistan comes as over half of the Afghan population needs life-saving assistance while 95 per cent are under the poverty line.

Expressing concern over the abject economic situation of the Afghan people post-Taliban came to power, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said that millions of people in the country are facing economic challenges.

"Humanitarian operations, although very important, are not sufficient and we need to focus on people's livelihoods, and the reason why we need to focus on people's livelihoods is, simply, we have millions of people today who are on the verge of economic collapse in addition to the millions of who are already suffering from the humanitarian situation and challenges. We would like to say clearly that if you want to reduce the humanitarian load in Afghanistan, we have to work on livelihoods," said Abdallah Al Dardari, UNDP resident representative in Afghanistan, reported Tolo News.

Dardari said he does not consider humanitarian aid to Afghanistan sufficient and emphasizes that without economic development, Afghanistan will not be stable.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) on Twitter announced the continuation of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

WFP continues to help people in need across Afghanistan, helping 900,000 people in Badakhshan in the past three months alone, reported Tolo News.

According to UN figures, 23 million people in Afghanistan are currently starving and 95 per cent of Afghans do not have enough food to eat three times in 24 hours.

( With inputs from ANI )