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The United Nations has provided more than $2.9 billion in cash to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power and U.S. funds flowed to the militant group, according to a recent government report.
The United Nations deposits the cash in private banks in Afghanistan and disburses the funds to the agency’s aid and non-profit humanitarian groups. But the money doesn’t stop there, the report found. Some end up in the Central Bank of Afghanistan, which is under Taliban control. The group occupied the country after the withdrawal of US forces in August 2021.
This report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction provides the first detailed account of how U.S. cash is under the control of the Taliban and shows that contributions to the United Nations do not necessarily go to Afghans in need. It adds to the growing body of evidence that they are not being delivered. He did not say how much money from the United States had flowed into the central bank.
“Most of the money flowing through the United Nations in cash ultimately comes from U.S. taxpayers,” Inspector General John Sopko said in an interview. “It plays into the hands of terrorist groups. The Taliban are a terrorist group.”
UN officials have not ruled out that the cash delivered to Afghanistan will be sent to the central bank. But they say it cannot be avoided now that the Taliban is in control of the country.
A tweet from the Central Bank of Afghanistan purports to show a photo of humanitarian funds being unloaded at Kabul airport. Credit: via X
At a press conference at the UN Security Council on March 6, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, did not mention Afghanistan’s central bank. She said the cash shipments are helping to stabilize the economy and deliver much-needed medical care and food to Afghans. Otunbayeva told city councilors that freight transport “injected liquidity into the local economy, largely enabling the private sector to continue functioning and avoiding a fiscal crisis.”
In a letter submitted in response to the inspector general’s report, the State Department said the United Nations is responsible for administering the cash transfer program.
“We remain committed to providing critical, lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. We continue to monitor assistance programs and ensure that U.S. assistance indirectly benefits the Taliban. “We will seek to reduce the risk of potential or potential diversion to unintended recipients,” the letter said.
Lawmakers say the U.S. needs to take further steps to stem the flow of money to the group.
“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “The U.S. government must redouble its efforts to prevent the Taliban from benefiting from humanitarian assistance.”
A spokesperson for the Central Bank of Afghanistan did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan has suffered repeated humanitarian crises, with half of its 40 million people in need of food, water and other basic necessities. Last year’s earthquake killed more than 1,200 people and forced thousands to evacuate. Women’s rights are severely restricted.
The United States remains Afghanistan’s largest donor of aid, providing a total of about $2.6 billion since the fall of the previous Afghan government. But the fear that the funds will end up in the wrong hands complicates the delivery of aid. For example, U.S. officials blocked the central bank from receiving money from trust funds holding Afghan money that could be used for the country’s benefit.
“I can’t say anything more clearly: The United States is not funding the Taliban,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing last year.
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The inspector general’s report casts doubt on that claim. The State Department and the United States Agency for International Development continue to provide funding to the United Nations to support ongoing humanitarian efforts. Meanwhile, the United Nations said there was a need to send cash to Afghanistan due to a lack of remittance infrastructure.
After receiving funds from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the United Nations will transport the shrink-wrapped $100 bills to Kabul International Airport. The money will arrive periodically, up to $40 million at a time. According to the post A post from the Central Bank of Afghanistan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Once aid organizations receive the US dollars, they must convert the money into the country’s currency, Afghanistan, to pay for workers and other costs. They often use private exchanges that use dollars to buy Afghans from the central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank.
Senior Taliban leaders control the central bank, which does not have systems in place to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering, according to the inspector general’s report, which cited an analysis paid for by USAID. do not have. Development Agency officials declined to release the study, calling it a “confidential internal document.”
The outflow of funds from central banks raises yet another concern. Humanitarian organizations are sometimes forced to make cash payments directly to the Taliban. The inspector general said local Taliban leaders are demanding that the United Nations and aid groups hire members and their relatives or prioritize treatment for widows and wounded fighters.
“Diversion of aid does happen. When it happens, humanitarian operations need to be stopped and solutions need to be found,” said one U.N. official who was not authorized to make public comments. . “In some cases the Taliban will try to take control of the distribution according to their priorities, and in other cases aid operations will be stopped completely. We are also seeing very active support and openness in other areas.”
The risk of diversion of foreign aid in war-torn countries has long concerned the United States and other countries. The only way to stop this is to stop the flow of funds, but humanitarian groups say this could lead to dire consequences such as starvation and the collapse of local economies.
In many ways, the United States is responsible for the problems it currently faces. The distribution of funds to help the vulnerable has been a recurring problem during the two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Congressional investigators say U.S. authorities airlifted more than $12 billion in cash, or the equivalent of 363 tons, into Iraq early in the war, making it nearly impossible to identify the ultimate beneficiaries. are.
However, the United States and its international allies have not been able to fully implement systems to improve transparency in Afghanistan, such as wire transfers and electronic payments, despite repeated calls from watchdog groups to do so. .
Inspector General Sopko said the United States, United Nations and multilateral agencies could put better controls in place regarding cash flows in Afghanistan, but acknowledged that the task is inherently difficult.
“If no one pays attention, there will be waste, fraud and abuse,” he says.
Mohammad Javad Alizada, editor-in-chief of Alive in Afghanistan and former ProPublica partner, assisted with translation.
