US says over 10,000 awaiting evacuations at Kabul airport

Taylor, who was flanked by the US military’s Joint Staff for Regional Operations, was talking to reporters. 

The Pentagon claimed it evacuated some 19,000 people in the past 24 hours. More than 70,000 people, foreigners and Afghans, have been evacuated since August 14, the day before the Taliban swept into Kabul.

Meanwhile, 10 million children in Afghanistan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF Afghanistan warns as the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) seeks $200m in food aid.

David Beasley, executive director of WFP, said 14 million people – one-third of the Afghan population – face food insecurity “because of several years of drought, conflict, [and] economic deterioration, compounded by COVID”.

The World Bank has suspended aid to Afghanistan, freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. It has provided $5.3bn since 2002 and has 27 projects there. Last week, the International Monetary Fund blocked the delivery of payments.

SOURCE: Agencies