By Mohammad Farshad Daryosh in TOLOnews, April 12, 2023 at 8:47 PM
The UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that almost 24 million Afghans need humanitarian assistance.
“UN national personnel – both women and men – have been instructed not to report to UN offices, with only limited and calibrated exceptions made for critical tasks, but they will be working from home and continue to be paid. The mission said any negative consequences of this crisis for the Afghan people will be the responsibility of the de facto authorities. Just to confirm that we will maintain principled and constructive engagement with all possible levels of the Taliban de facto authorities, as mandated by the Security Council,” Dujarric told a press conference.
The Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Afghanistan, Petras Auštrevičius, “strongly” condemned the decision of the Islamic Emirate to ban female Afghan UN staff from working.
“Humanitarian aid provided by EU has to match our principle and I call for this to be respected. Only the Taliban regime will be held responsible for aggravating the suffering it is inflicting to its citizens,” he said.
An economist, Shabir Basheeri said that the issue will cause a rise in poverty in Afghanistan.
“We need to implement strategic programs and programs by the government to deal with this matter and to be able to provide jobs for the people,” he said.
Human rights defenders said the people of Afghanistan should not become victims of political agendas.
“The people of Afghanistan should not become victims of unfair international and foreign politics with the Afghan caretaker government,” said Suraya Paikan, a women’s rights activist.
The Office of the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister said the political deputy Mawlawi Abdul Kabir met with political and economic affairs officials of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
“It was agreed that any problem that happens, the Islamic Emirate and UNAMA must sit face to face to and solve it,” the office said on Twitter.
The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of all citizens.
“The issues that the Islamic Emirate has mentioned are based on Sharia law. We also call on the UN to not link its major programs to small issues that are internal matters of Afghanistan,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.
UNAMA in a statement called the ban on its female employee “unlawful.”
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-182933
