In a statement released on Wednesday, the British foreign secretary said “no money will go directly to the Taliban.”

London pledged this Wednesday to raise 286 million pounds sterling, or about 340 million euros, an additional $4 billion for Afghanistan, on the eve of a donors’ conference co-hosted with the United Nations on Thursday.

“This new funding will be distributed through trusted UN partners and NGOs. No funding will go directly to the Taliban,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

The United Kingdom, which had already released £286 million for Afghanistan for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, is thus renewing its contribution.

According to the head of British diplomacy, aid from the United Kingdom has already made it possible to support more than 60 hospitals, provide support for health services for more than 300,000 people, support about 4.5 million people through World Food Enabled to receive emergency food assistance from program (WFP), and assisted 6.1 million people through the United Nations Humanitarian Fund for Afghanistan.

During the conference, she would pledge to put girls’ education at the center of Britain’s response, a foreign ministry statement said, and urged the Taliban to roll back their decision to keep girls out of secondary school.

$4.4 billion needed

The British government has been criticized by humanitarian organizations and for its opposition to reducing the amount of its budget for international aid due to the Covid-19 pandemic and for its chaotic operation to evacuate its citizens and ‘Afghans’ which was for the British. used to work. The Taliban returned.

The United Nations announced in January that it needed $4.4 billion from donor countries to meet humanitarian needs in Afghanistan this year, the largest ever for a single country.

According to London, the United Nations estimates that about 10 million children in Afghanistan are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.