China sends humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

ANKARA

The first batch of humanitarian aid by China landed in Afghanistan on Wednesday night, an official said.

“Handed over the first batch of aid mainly including warm materials such as blankets and cotton clothes,” Wang Yu, China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said on Twitter.

Khalil Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting minister of refugees, received the aid at Kabul airport.

“The assistance shows deep love and friendship of Chinese people to Afghan people and reflects China’s role as a major country that keeps its promises and is kind to its neighbors, which is a great move to build a community with a shared future for mankind,” Wang added.

China earlier this month had promised $31million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan which saw an end to the war with the exit of all foreign forces in August after the Taliban regained control of the war-torn country.

Beijing will focus on the winter needs of the Afghan people and will include food grain, vaccine stocks, and medicines.

Humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan comes at a time when the UN has warned of a major humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

The world body held a major fundraising conference in Geneva on Sept. 13 where over $1billion in funds were promised by various countries to help the Afghan people.

Beijing has emerged as a top critique of the US and accused it of being the "culprit of the Afghan issue."

“Afghanistan is an independent sovereign state. The US should respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. The drone strike killing 10 in Kabul is just the tip of the iceberg of all those tragedies and crimes the US made,” Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said a day earlier.

“As the culprit of the Afghan issue, the US should shoulder its responsibility and stop habitual and wanton military intervention and forcing its own will on others,” Hua added.