U.S. still largest donor to Afghans despite Taliban takeover

The U.S. government remains the biggest donor to Afghanistan even in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover, according to an inspector general’s report released late Tuesday.

Some $2.1 billion has flowed to Afghanistan since August of 2021, when the U.S. withdrew the last of its troops and the Taliban toppled the American-backed government and took control.

And while U.S. officials say the money is supposed to be going to assist Afghans and not feed into the Taliban’s treasury, the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction said officials can’t say for sure that the Taliban isn’t siphoning some of the money away from the groups the U.S. is funding.

“Since the Taliban takeover, the U.S. government has sought to continue supporting the Afghan people without providing benefits for the Taliban regime. However, it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars,” said Inspector General John F. Sopko.

He pointed to reports that the Taliban levies fee charges on nongovernmental organizations still operating in the country. And in some areas, Taliban officials have ordered NGOs to provide assistance to Taliban personnel before others.

The new report said the State Department doesn’t know how much assistance has been siphoned off in that manner.

U.S. assistance includes help with mining and agriculture, education, human rights and health programs.

After a 20-year war effort, President Biden oversaw the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021. Without U.S. support, the government collapsed and the Taliban, which the U.S. had ousted decades before, retook control.

Since then, the administration has struggled with how much the U.S. should be involved.

Indeed, the administration still hasn’t decided whether to recognize the Taliban as the rightful government of Afghanistan.

The country could desperately use the help. The U.N. says Afghanistan has the worst food insecurity problem in the world, with more than half the country relying on World Food Program assistance in 2022. This year is expected to be even worse.

But the risk of propping up the repressive Taliban is also great.

After the Taliban issued an edict late last year banning NGOs from employing women, the U.S. began a review of its programs to see how the edict was affecting operations. The review is still going on but officials believe they have in many instances found “workarounds” to ensure female aid workers are still on the job.

The new report comes just weeks after Mr. Sopko testified to Congress about his work monitoring the U.S. withdrawal and ongoing engagement with Afghanistan.

At that time he warned lawmakers the State Department was refusing to cooperate in his mission. He said the department was withholding information he is allowed to see.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the hearing called on the department to do better.

Mr. Sopko, in the report, said he’s seen some improvements since his testimony, but said “time will ultimately tell.”