The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is at risk of total breakdown if the international community does not find a way to keep money flowing into Afghanistan despite concerns over the Taliban government.
Nearly $10bn of Afghanistan’s central bank assets are currently frozen overseas and considered key leverage over the new administration.
But the UN special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons disclosed that Afghanistan was facing a storm of crises including a plunging currency, a sharp rise in prices for food and fuel and a lack of cash at private banks, do not have the funds to pay salaries.
Lyons’s warning came shortly after a stark report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warned that the country could be facing universal poverty as the economy contracts. The UNDP says the country of 18 million is already one of the world’s poorest with 72 percent of people living on no more than one dollar a day.