The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an umbrella body of Islamic countries, has opened its office in the Afghan capital Kabul in a move to help the group coordinate its humanitarian operations in the country.  

Muhammad Saeed Al-Ayash has been appointed as director of OIC’s Afghanistan office, the group said on Twitter. The move came months after the OIC held its extraordinary ministerial meeting on Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power. 
  
During the meeting, held last year in December in Pakistan’s Islamabad, the group had decided to establish a special office to increase humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan which has been going through one of the worst humanitarian crises.

“The OIC office in Kabul will coordinate the OIC’s humanitarian efforts with Afghanistan and international partners. It will be strengthened with human and material resources in conformity with the resolution adopted by the extraordinary ministerial conference on the situation in Afghanistan,” the OIC said in a statement.

“This is to enable it to fulfill its obligations to support the Afghan people in various fields,” it added.

During last year's ministerial meeting, the OIC had also decided to establish a humanitarian trust fund to channel humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. 

The Humanitarian Trust Fund, under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank, will serve as a vehicle to channel humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan including in partnership with other international actors.

(SAM)