NEW YORK, 10 October 2021, (TON): Only a third of the funds urgently sought for Afghanistan by the United Nations have been disbursed, the UN refugees chief said Friday, warning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe.

Filippo Grandi urged donor nations to honour their financial pledges swiftly, saying “can you please concretely pledge support where it is immediately necessary.”

“Pledges were made, so it’s a matter of disbursing them because we need those resources quickly,” Grandi, who visited Afghanistan after the August 15 takeover by the Taliban, told a news conference.

Mindful that winter, which is harsh in the mountanous and predominantly rural country, is approaching, he spoke of a “race against time to address humanitarian needs.”

He said “the meltdown of services, the banking system, the economy, really risks generating a much bigger humanitarian crisis.”

On September 17, just over a month after the fall of Kabul, a ministerial conference in Geneva chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saw donor countries pledge $1.2 billion in aid.

 But it was unclear how much of this amount was going into the $606 million specifically requested by the UN to finance humanitarian aid for 11 million Afghans by the end of 2021.