UK pledges over $68M to help those at risk in Afghanistan

Two and a half million Afghans, most of them women and girls, will receive urgent life-saving humanitarian support thanks to £50 million ($68.4 million) of funding announced by the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today, Report informs, citing the British Government.

The funding, which is drawn from the UK’s £286 million aid commitment to Afghanistan announced by the Prime Minister in September, will be channeled via UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated since the Taliban seized control of the country in August. Under the UK’s evacuation effort ‘Operation PITTING,’ 15,000 British nationals and vulnerable Afghans were brought to the UK.

The funding announced today will help the critical need for food, nutrition, shelter and medicine over the winter months in Afghanistan and bolster the UN’s wider humanitarian response. Protecting women and girls from gender-based violence will also be prioritised.