KABUL, 12 February 2022, (TON): According to an internal U.N. note “the United Nations aims to kickstart this month a system to swap millions of aid dollars for Afghan currency in a plan to stem humanitarian and economic crises and bypass blacklisted Taliban leaders.”

Since the Taliban takeover in August, foreign financial assistance has stopped and international banks are wary of testing U.N. and U.S. sanctions on the hardline Islamist group, leaving the United Nations and aid groups struggling to obtain cash even as they continue to receive humanitarian donations.

The U.N. explanatory note, written last month, outlines an urgently needed Humanitarian Exchange Facility (HEF). The United Nations has warned that more than half of Afghanistan s 39 million people are suffering extreme hunger and the economy, education and social services are collapsing.

The note said “the overall objective is to have the HEF up and running in February.”

“Prior to the full establishment of the facility, we seek to facilitate several trial swaps, to demonstrate exactly how the mechanism will work.”

U.N. and humanitarian officials warn that the facility can be only a temporary measure until Afghanistan s central bank begins operating independently and some $9 billion in foreign reserves frozen abroad are released.