RIYADH — Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, adviser at the Royal Court and supervisor general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), stated that Saudi Arabia has implemented 76 relief and humanitarian projects worth more than $258 million in Afghanistan. These included 41 projects valued at $29 million and implemented through KSrelief, and five development loans to the tune of $220 million provided by the Saudi Fund for Development (SDF) to finance four projects in the education and road sectors. Dr. Al-Rabeeah made the remarks while addressing a donors' conference dedicated to Afghanistan. The virtual conference was organized by the United Nations in cooperation with Qatar, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported. He said that the Kingdom, through SDF, provided two grants — $25million and $30 million — to fund reconstruction and some of the proposed components of the voluntary return program for Afghan refugees. Dr. Al-Rabeeah expressed Saudi Arabia's appreciation of the UN, Qatar, the UK and Germany for their keenness to organize this virtual conference in light of the exceptional circumstances the world has been going through, which have exacerbated the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, especially affecting the most vulnerable groups. "We meet today, and we all agree that providing relief and humanitarian aid to the Afghan people is a matter that requires support from all through the donor groups, but at the international level as well, to avoid any serious humanitarian disasters that the Afghan people or countries hosting Afghan refugees might face," he said. He pointed out that over the past few decades, the Kingdom supported a large number of humanitarian and relief projects in Afghanistan and had been keen, with its partners, to support all efforts aimed at alleviating human suffering and preventing the occurrence of new waves of migration or displacement. "Emanating from the Kingdom's humanitarian responsibility toward the Afghan people, Saudi Arabia recently dispatched urgent relief aid through air and land bridge to Afghanistan as per the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. The Kingdom, within its capacity as the chair of the Islamic Summit, hosted an extraordinary meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last December to discuss the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and contribute to providing an appropriate humanitarian response. The meeting resulted in the establishment of the Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan (HTFA) under the umbrella of the Islamic Development Bank," he pointed out. Dr. Al-Rabeeah said Saudi Arabia would continue pursuing its efforts to support the Afghan people and implement relief and humanitarian programs to alleviate human suffering through KSrelief and SDF, in addition to HTFA.
