Just 4 months after the Taliban took over Kabul in August, they are begging the United States to release $10 Billion in frozen funds.  The Daily Mail Reports–

“The Taliban have pleaded with the US and the West to show ‘mercy and compassion’ by releasing $10billion in funds frozen when the group seized Afghanistan.

Speaking in a rare interview, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the funds would help millions of the country’s citizens that are in desperate need.”

The Foreign Minister claimed that the Taliban is committed to improving human rights for women and other persecuted groups in Afghanistan, despite the groups troubled past.

 

 

Afghanistan faces an increasingly desperate situation, where families have been forced to sell their newborn children to survive, and droughts have uprooted people from their homes.  One mother sold her newborn child for $104, which she said would be enough money to feed her family for up to 6 months.

While the United States has so far refused to unfreeze the $10 Billion in funds, the Treasury Department of Foreign Assets Control agreed to allow remittance payments to Afghanistan this week.

The United Nations warned that up to half of Afghans face starvation this winter as an already bad drought situation could get worse.  The situation was made worse by the fact that many aid organizations fleed the country after the Taliban takeover this August.

Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) have said that Afghanistan has ‘wasted no time’ stamping out human rights in the country in a briefing released this September.

The briefing says that despite assurances to the contrary, the Taliban has “Demonstrated that they are not serious about protecting or respecting human rights”.  The report details targeted killings of civilians and surrendered soldiers, the blockading of humanitarian aide, and rollbacks on civil rights for women.