World Bank, int'l organisations not supporting Afghanistan's health sector as promised earlier: Taliban

Kabul [Afghanistan], January 2 : The Taliban have said that international organisations including the World Bank had promised to support the health sector of Afghanistan but now they have stopped doing so, reported local media.
"The health sector in Afghanistan would be in the same position as it was during the previous government if the international community had not stopped supporting it," Khaama Press quoted Taliban's Deputy Minister of Public Health Abdul Bari Omar as saying on Saturday during a press conference in Kabul.
"The World Bank had pledged to be supporting Afghanistan's hospitals until 2024 but when the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan regained power over Afghanistan, the support halted," he added.
The World Bank stopped supporting the project of battling COVID-19, said Omar, adding that Afghanistan's finance ministry had also not allocated the budget for the pandemic.
The Taliban officials maintained that the halt of the financial support has caused serious problems to the health sector of the country stressing that the officials are doing their best to save the sector from collapse.
Omar also emphasised that meanwhile, nearly up to three and half million drug addicts are also being treated without the support of the international community.
Referring to the issue of malnourished children, he said that their numbers are nearly 3.2 million in the country stressing that the health sector is also battling low-quality medications, food insecurity, fund issues, and the effects of war.