The Taliban regime never tires of branding its critics, Pakistan included, as American and Zionist agents. Yet the money trail tells a very different story. A report by the Kabul Institute, an Afghan-led body that set out to expose gaps in aid transparency, has instead laid bare the staggering scale of foreign dollars pouring into Afghanistan since the Taliban seized Kabul.
Over five years, USD 8 billion was channelled to international agencies for humanitarian assistance. Of that, only USD 721.9 million, roughly 9 percent, can be traced beyond the first recipient, leaving public records without details on 91 percent of the funds. Worse still, 316 payments worth USD 1.42 billion list their recipients simply as “confidential”.
That is only the humanitarian stream. Development agencies have separately committed USD 12 billion to 1,208 projects. On top of this, billions more in grants have reportedly gone directly to the Taliban administration, with estimates placing the figure at around USD 9.5 billion since 2021.
Taken together, the money committed and disbursed comes to approximately USD 30 billion in five years. And none of it is loans. Every dollar is a grant, money the regime never has to repay.
This is hardly a new pattern. The US watchdog SIGAR had already found that aid partners paid at least USD 10.9 million in taxes, fees and duties to Taliban-controlled entities, and that the regime pressured agencies to divert assistance. The UN alone flew in USD 2.9 billion in cash after the takeover.
So the question writes itself. A regime that sustains itself on Western grants, keeps a third of its aid inflow behind “confidential” labels, and still cannot feed its own people is in no position to lecture anyone about foreign agents. While Kabul hurls slogans at Islamabad, it is the Taliban who sit on the receiving end of foreign billions, with no accountability to the Afghan people they claim to serve.
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
SAT Commentary
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
The Taliban regime never tires of branding its critics, Pakistan included, as American and Zionist agents. Yet the money trail tells a very different story.
Tehran (26 Oct): Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, described the talks as “very good”. “I feel that a new atmosphere is
Originally published by The Watchtower. Featured by South Asia Times (SAT) for informational purposes, with attribution to the original author and publisher. The post-9/11 period
Taliban regime calls others American and Zionist agents, but who is pocketing billions in foreign dollars?
The Taliban regime never tires of branding its critics, Pakistan included, as American and Zionist agents. Yet the money trail tells a very different story. A report by the Kabul Institute, an Afghan-led body that set out to expose gaps in aid transparency, has instead laid bare the staggering scale of foreign dollars pouring into Afghanistan since the Taliban seized Kabul.
Over five years, USD 8 billion was channelled to international agencies for humanitarian assistance. Of that, only USD 721.9 million, roughly 9 percent, can be traced beyond the first recipient, leaving public records without details on 91 percent of the funds. Worse still, 316 payments worth USD 1.42 billion list their recipients simply as “confidential”.
That is only the humanitarian stream. Development agencies have separately committed USD 12 billion to 1,208 projects. On top of this, billions more in grants have reportedly gone directly to the Taliban administration, with estimates placing the figure at around USD 9.5 billion since 2021.
Taken together, the money committed and disbursed comes to approximately USD 30 billion in five years. And none of it is loans. Every dollar is a grant, money the regime never has to repay.
This is hardly a new pattern. The US watchdog SIGAR had already found that aid partners paid at least USD 10.9 million in taxes, fees and duties to Taliban-controlled entities, and that the regime pressured agencies to divert assistance. The UN alone flew in USD 2.9 billion in cash after the takeover.
So the question writes itself. A regime that sustains itself on Western grants, keeps a third of its aid inflow behind “confidential” labels, and still cannot feed its own people is in no position to lecture anyone about foreign agents. While Kabul hurls slogans at Islamabad, it is the Taliban who sit on the receiving end of foreign billions, with no accountability to the Afghan people they claim to serve.
SAT Commentary
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
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Originally published by The Watchtower. Featured by South Asia Times (SAT) for informational purposes, with attribution to the original author and publisher. The post-9/11 period