Saudi Arabia dispatches two humanitarian aid planes to Afghanistan
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 17, 2021
- . Update: December 18, 2021 1:35 pm
Saudi arabia– On Thursday, December 16, 2021, Saudi Arabia sent two planes carrying humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, according to the Saudi Press Agency. This is the first initiative of its kind by the Kingdom to the country mired in crises.
The agency stated that the two planes, which were flown by the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action, ‘carry on board 1,647 food baskets, and 192 accommodation bags weighing 65 tons and 746 kilograms.’ The agency quoted the general supervisor of the King Salman Relief Center, Abdullah Al-Rabiah, as saying that ‘the Saudi relief air bridge includes the propulsion of 6 relief planes, which include food and shelter aid, weighing 197 tons and 238 kilograms.’
According to Al-Rabiah, the center secured foodstuffs weighing 1,920 tons, loaded by 200 relief trucks, which will set out via a land convoy from Pakistani lands that will be distributed to the most needy families in Afghanistan.’
On Tuesday, a meeting was conducted by the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh that confirmed ‘ its contribution to mobilizing international support to provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people and improve economic conditions.’
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More than half of Afghanistan’s total population of 38 million suffer from ‘severe’ food shortages, according to the United Nations, and millions of them find themselves in the winter with a choice between migration and starvation.
One of the main challenges lies in getting money into Afghanistan without the financial institutions being subjected to US sanctions imposed on the Taliban.
The Taliban is seeking to obtain international recognition of the legitimacy of its authority in Afghanistan and to obtain aid to spare the country a humanitarian catastrophe and alleviate the stifling economic crisis it is suffering from.
So far, no country has recognized the legitimacy of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, noting that only three countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan, recognized the former Taliban regime that extended from 1996 until 2001.
