EU, other donors step up with funds to help Afghanistan
GENEVA (AP) — The European Union, the United States and other donors pledged billions of dollars in new funding for Afghanistan on Tuesday, hoping to salvage years of work aimed to foster peace and stability in the country and coax along uncertain peace talks between Taliban rebels and the Afghan government — at a time when Islamic State extremists have increasingly caused havoc and bloodshed.
A largely virtual pledging conference for Afghanistan, co-hosted by Finland and the United Nations in Geneva, drew representatives from nearly 100 countries and international groups in the first such event in four years. It comes as the COVID-19 crisis has commanded worldwide attention, and its outbreak in Afghanistan has compounded persistent ills like corruption and extremist violence.
Countries like Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States and Canada stepped forward with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of pledges for Afghanistan, after speeches from officials like Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who hailed the country's “ambitious agenda for development and reform.”
"The United Nations stands with the people of Afghanistan on the path toward peace, development and self-reliance," Guterres said, expressing hope that donor pledges will "translate into real progress and concrete improvements for the people of Afghanistan.”
That was a familiar refrain about Afghanistan, where progress has been underpinned by international support and remains fragile, amid perennial hopes that peace and stability can emerge.
Nearly 20 years after a U.S.-led international coalition toppled the Taliban government that supported al-Qaida, Afghanistan's woes remain complex and its future uncertain. Violence have increased in recent months, Taliban rebels and the government are...
