A $45 million in the emergency fund has been released by the United Nations aid chief on Wednesday to help prevent Afghanistan’s battered healthcare system from collapsing.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator warned in a statement saying that “medicines, medical supplies and fuel are running out in Afghanistan.”
“Cold chains are compromised. Essential health-care workers are not being paid,” he said.
After the Taliban swept into power last month, Afghanistan’s healthcare system was went into crisis since then, obscuring help deliveries and leaving many health facilities understaffed.
In a bid to prevent the calamity, Griffiths said he was releasing funds from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to boost life-saving support in Afghanistan.
“Allowing Afghanistan’s healthcare delivery system to fall apart would be disastrous,” he said.
“People across the country would be denied access to primary health care such as emergency caesarian sections and trauma care.”
The funds, he said, would go to the UN’s health and children’s agencies, allowing them with the help of partner NGOs to keep hospitals, Covid-19 centres and other health facilities operating until the end of the year.
“The UN is determined to stand by the people of Afghanistan in their hour of need,” Griffiths said.
