US: Bernie Sanders asks Biden to release funds & support Afghanistan to avert 'crisis'

Senator Bernie Sanders of the United States has urged President Joe Biden to "immediately release" billions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets to avoid a "crisis" in the Central Asian country and save millions of people from dying of starvation and famine. Following the Taliban's takeover of power in Afghanistan, the US froze roughly $10 billion in assets held by the New York Federal Reserve Bank in August of last year. Hundreds of millions of dollars in routine aid payments to the government were also blocked at the same time by the IMF and the World Bank.

Senate Sanders, in a tweet, wrote, "Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian catastrophe. I urge the Biden administration to immediately release billions in frozen Afghan government funds to help avert this crisis, and prevent the death of millions of people."

UN chief urges intl. community to inject liquidity in Afghanistan

The demand by the 80-year-old Democrat-leaning senator from Vermont comes just days after United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Washington and the World Bank to help Afghanistan's financial system by injecting liquidity. Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the TalibanHeading 2-controlled country was on the verge of a meltdown that would result in poverty, hunger, and destitution for millions of people.

Last month, a group of 46 House Democrats led by Pramila Jayapal wrote to the Biden administration, requesting that the US' policy on freezing Afghanistan's assets be changed. Major international aid groups, including the UN backed World Food Programme (WFP), have warned that Washington's decision to suspend Afghanistan's government money has exacerbated an inflationary crisis and a drought, putting nearly 23 million Afghans at risk of acute famine.

Food supplies to Afghans would cost $220 million each month: WFP

According to the WFP, approximately 3 million children in Afghanistan are malnourished. Last month, the world's largest humanitarian organisation estimated that delivering food supplies to Afghans at risk of malnutrition and hunger would cost $220 million each month. The Biden administration, for its part, has linked the unfreezing of Afghanistan's funds to the Taliban fulfilling their commitments made during the signing of the Doha Peace Deal, such as forming an inclusive government with representation from all major ethnic groups and respecting women's and other minorities' rights.

Despite this, the US and other international institutions have eased restrictions on the flow of funding to Afghanistan in response to fears of a humanitarian disaster. Last month, the World Bank announced that it will send $280 million to the World Food Programme and UNICEF, the two relief agencies working in Afghanistan, to offer essential humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.