Human Aid & Advocacy calls for an end to economic warfare on Afghan people

Human Aid & Advocacy calls for an end to economic warfare on Afghan people

London – Human Aid & Advocacy calls on countries who are freezing financial assets that belong to Afghanistan, to immediately release them so that the Afghan people can begin to live sustainably and independently.

This follows a ruling by a New York district court last week against a potential seizure of $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves held by the US. Human Aid & Advocacy welcomes this decision as a victory for the Afghan people.

In 2021, US President Biden approved the freeze of nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghanistan Central Bank (DAG); the Afghan government also remained on the Treasury Department’s sanctions list. 

Since 2020, approximately, $2.5 billion of these assets are held by other countries including Germany, Switzerland, the UAE and the UK.

Chair of Human Aid & Advocacy, Nur Choudhury said: 

“In the 90s, sanctions imposed by the international community against Iraq, needlessly tripled and in some cases quadrupled child deaths in the country. The world cannot do the same to Afghanistan.” 

“The current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is a man-made crisis. Human Aid & Advocacy has witnessed and heard from Afghan people that it is the unavailability of money that is preventing them from living, learning, and working sustainably, free from aid.”

For our upcoming report on Afghanistan, many local experts we interviewed told us time and again that the top priority should be the release of frozen assets: 

A history and geography teacher told us: “The biggest pressure … is the billions [of] frozen assets which are in the bank and inaccessible to us.”

A director and consultant of education said: “Our money has been frozen. If we are returned this money, it will help the people.” 

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