10,000 signatures reached
To: President Biden
President Biden must ensure Afghans do not starve
Dear President Biden,
We ask that you rescind your February 11th executive order and urge you to immediately unfreeze and release $150 million dollars out of $7.1 billion at the New York Federal Reserve Bank each month to the Central Bank of Afghanistan, under the oversight of an independent public auditor, allowing the Central Bank of Afghanistan to perform its core functions. This would bring much-needed stability and inject liquidity into an Afghan economy in dire need of both. This amount represents merely a fraction of the Afghan people’s own money in U.S. banks that Afghan families are currently unable to access. Strict monitoring requirements will ensure that the capital is used to address the needs of people in Afghanistan and not siphoned off by the Taliban for any nefarious means. The Taliban’s control of the country should not mean that the Afghan population should suffer because of it. Nor should the administration designate Afghanistan's sovereign money to be used for humanitarian aid; that ought to be the role of the United States and the international community that occupied Afghanistan for 20 years.
Why is this important?
Afghanistan is facing an existential economic crisis that’s shuttering banks, leaving civil servants without pay and increasing prices of basic food items like cooking oil and flour for Afghan families. UN officials are warning that food in the country could run out this month and millions could starve this winter. One million Afghan children could die of malnutrition in this man-made disaster. Doctors have not been paid for months and hospitals across the country are on the verge of total collapse. With no access to the Afghan people’s own money or financial capital, more Afghans are on the brink of a devastating economic crisis that will only further increase an already deepening humanitarian crisis.