Taliban prepare to reveal new government amid economic, humanitarian crisis

Gulf Today Report

Afghanistan's Taliban were preparing on Thursday to unveil their new government as new rulers struggled to keep the country functioning after the final withdrawal of US forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.

Two weeks since the Taliban's sweep into Kabul the economy teetered on the edge of collapse more than two weeks after the Islamist militia captured Kabul and brought a chaotic end to 20 years of war.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' stockpiles of food in Afghanistan could run out this month, a senior official warned on Wednesday, threatening to add a hunger crisis to the challenges facing the country's new Taliban rulers as they try to restore stability after decades of war.

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About one third of the country's population of 38 million doesn't know if they will have a meal every day, according to Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's humanitarian chief in Afghanistan.

In an administrative vacuum, prices have soared and crowds have gathered at banks to withdraw cash.

This photo shows a view of Kabul Bazaar in Kabul, Afghanistan. Reuters

Heavily armed fighters have imposed control on the capital, but Taliban officials were grappling with keeping hospitals and government machinery running following the end of a huge airlift of foreigners and Afghans who had helped Western forces.

Taliban official Ahmadullah Muttaqi said on social media a ceremony was being prepared at the presidential palace in Kabul, while private broadcaster Tolo said an announcement on a new government was imminent.

The legitimacy of the new government in the eyes of international donors and investors will be crucial for the economy as the country battles drought and the ravages of a conflict that took the lives of an estimated 240,000 Afghans.

The Taliban has promised to allow safe passage out of the country for any foreigners or Afghans left behind by the massive airlift which ended with the withdrawal of the last US troops on Monday, but with Kabul airport still closed many were seeking to flee overland to neighbouring countries.

A shopkeeper arranges TV screen boxes displayed outside an electronics shop at a market in Kabul on Thursday. AFP

The new, Taliban-appointed central bank head has sought to reassure banks the group wants a fully functioning financial system, but has so far given little detail on how it will supply funds for it, bankers familiar with the matter said.

The UN's World Food Programme has brought in food and distributed it to tens of thousands of people in recent weeks, but with winter approaching and a drought ongoing, at least $200 million is needed urgently to be able to continue to feed the most vulnerable Afghans, he said.

"By the end of September, the stocks which the World Food Programme has in the country will be out,” Alakbarov told reporters at a virtual news conference. "We will not be able to provide those essential food items because we’ll be out of stocks.”

Foreign investment would be needed to support a more optimistic outlook, a scenario which assumed "some major economies, namely China and potentially Russia, would accept the Taliban as the legitimate government", Fitch said.