Just days after announcing that it would allow the World Food Program to employ local Afghan women in its survey of the food needs of hundreds of Afghan families, the Taliban militia has ordered the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan to vacate its offices in Kabul, according to the Associated Press (AP). The Taliban notified the U.N. six months ago that it must renew its contract and pay rent on the Kabul offices, a Taliban foreign ministry official argues, and the U.N. did not respond to this request. The U.N. has offered no official comment, but an anonymous Afghan staff member told the Associated Press that the Special Mission has been paying the Taliban electricity charges and municipal taxes on the property in Kabul.
The Taliban has hindered humanitarian missions in Afghanistan with its restrictive edicts barring “inappropriate contact” between women and men, and closing U.N. offices in cities around Afghanistan in May of this year. With one million Afghans facing starvation and a continuing ban against work, education and mobility for women, the situation in Afghanistan is worsening daily.
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