"I am deeply concerned about #Afghanistan's frozen financial assets. But girls not going to school, women not being allowed to work, to provide services through NGOs, or to create and lead businesses providing jobs are another frozen asset. The interim government can unfreeze it," Niklasson wrote on Twitter.
In November, the United Nations Development Program released a new report on the situation in Afghan banking and financial system. The UN noted that the bank-run problem in the country must be resolved quickly to prevent the system from collapsing. In turn, Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself the acting Afghan president, said that the banking sector of the country had already collapsed.
Since the takeover in mid-August by the Taliban*, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have suspended financial aid which previously accounted for nearly 75% of Afghanistan's public expenditure, while the US froze billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank.
The population of the country is currently battered by the deepening economic, humanitarian, and security crises. The challenges faced by the Afghan people include the COVID-19 pandemic, education problems, food security, displacement, gender-based and other kinds of human rights abuses.
*Organization is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities