Germany halts development aid to Afghanistan amid Taliban takeover

Germany is suspending development aid to Afghanistan as the Taliban completes its takeover of the country, a top German official announced on Tuesday.

“State cooperation on development is suspended for the time being,” Development Minister Gerd Mueller said in an interview with Rheinische Post. “We are working at pace to evacuate from Afghanistan those local development officials and NGO workers who want to leave.”

Germany appears to be the first donor country to say it will withhold aid.

About $300 million in development aid was planned for Afghanistan this year, but no funds have been disbursed yet, Tagesschau reported.

However, funds from other ministries have flowed to Afghanistan for humanitarian aid and police training. Overall, Germany had pledged $500 million to Afghanistan for 2021.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas signaled last week that a pause in development funding was likely.

“We will not give another cent to Afghanistan once the Taliban have completely taken over, introduced Sharia law and this country becomes a caliphate,” Maas said on Thursday.

The U.S. has been the biggest donor in foreign aid to Afghanistan. In 2019, U.S. agencies spent a total of $4.9 billion on the country, with most of it going to fund Afghan security forces. Roughly $800 million a year has gone toward civilian aid in recent years.

In November, foreign donors pledged a projected $12 billion in civilian aid to Afghanistan over the next four years, but many made it conditional on protecting human rights and making progress on peace talks.

While many diplomats have argued that continued financing for Afghanistan could keep the Taliban on a tight leash and provide foreign governments with some leverage, the amount of aid from the international community has been widely criticized as useless without a ceasefire.

Experts expect Afghanistan will still be reliant on international support for the foreseeable future.

Like many countries, Germany is now working to evacuate local staff, including those who have worked in the development field.

The German government is working “at full speed to ensure that local staff of German development cooperation and aid organizations cooperating with us who want to do so can leave Afghanistan safely,” Mueller said Tuesday.