Inaction may kill thousands

Germany's new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has pledged to work with international partners to help avert in Afghanistan what she called "the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our time".

Outlining an "action plan" two weeks after taking office, Baerbock said Berlin sought to assure that outside aid reached the neediest Afghans and step up the evacuation of those most threatened under the Taliban, especially women and girls.

"Before our eyes, Afghanistan is heading into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our time," Baerbock told reporters on Thursday.

"Major sectors of the economy have collapsed, many people are starving. One can hardly bear it when one reads that families in their desperation are selling their daughters to buy food."

She said 24 million Afghans were estimated to need assistance to survive this winter.

"We cannot allow hundreds of thousands of children to die because we don't want to take action," Baerbock said.

Berlin would "seek ways with our international partners so that humanitarian aid arrives in the country and bring those particularly in need of protection out of the country".

Baerbock said such efforts were also aimed at "preventing further destabilisation on the ground".

Since the Taliban swept back to power in August, billions of dollars in aid and assets have been frozen by the West in what the UN has described as an "unprecedented fiscal shock" to the aid-dependent Afghan economy.

The United Nation Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a US-proposed resolution to help humanitarian aid reach desperate Afghans, while seeking to keep funds out of Taliban hands.

On the same day, the United States formally exempted US and UN officials doing permitted business with the Taliban from US sanctions to try to maintain the flow of aid to Afghanistan.

The Treasury issued three general licenses aimed at easing humanitarian aid flows into Afghanistan.

Two of the licenses allow US officials and those of certain international organizations, such as the United Nations, to engage in transactions involving the Taliban or Haqqani Network for official business.

A third license gives non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protection from U.S. sanctions on the Taliban and the Haqqani Network for work on certain activities, including humanitarian projects.

A senior US administration official said the Taliban would have to take action to prevent Afghanistan's economy from contracting further.