Key Points

"As I prepare to leave Afghanistan in a few days, I am certain that most Afghans want engagement between the international community and their country to continue, despite the obstacles," said Roza Otunbayeva, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan, on Wednesday (local time).

"It is my fervent hope that a pathway can be agreed for this engagement to continue and for it to begin yielding more positive results, especially for women and girls in Afghanistan," she told the Security Council in her last briefing as special representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

It is an open question whether there is sufficient pragmatism among the Taliban, as the de facto authorities, to manage this perfect storm of crises facing Afghanistan, or whether decisions driven by ideology will prevent sustainable solutions, extending the Afghans' suffering and undermining existing stability, she said.

"We have seen evidence of both trends recently. In response to the Kunar earthquake, de facto authorities mobilised helicopters to evacuate the wounded, coordinated with international agencies and countries providing bilateral aid, set up sites for internally displaced people, and in other ways addressed the immediate and medium-term needs of the affected communities," Otunbayeva said.

"At the same time, as United Nations agencies were ramping up their support for earthquake victims while continuing their assistance to the returnee crisis, personnel from the de facto Ministry of Defence deployed outside UN compounds in Kabul, preventing access of our female national staff," she said.

This serious restriction hinders the world body's ability to help the Afghan people at their moment of great need, she said.

Otunbayeva said Afghanistan faces multiple and simultaneous crises: the Taliban's restrictions fueling popular discontent, international aid cuts of almost 50 per cent in 2025, a struggling economy and widespread poverty, an emerging drought and other climate-related stressors, including natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, and significant population returns from neighbouring countries, reports Xinhua news agency.

She said the UN Comprehensive Approach that seeks to maintain a basic international consensus on Afghanistan provides the only multilateral framework for engagement between the international community and the Taliban. If advanced, it could allow the country to reach its full economic potential and develop its human capital, she added.

- IANS