The extremist Taliban have expressed support for a vaccination campaign to vaccinate Afghans against the coronavirus.
The COVAX program of the World Health Organization has pledged 112 million dollars for this.
A spokesman for the insurgents promised the group would “support and facilitate” vaccination through health centres in the conflict-torn country. There is still heavy fighting there, despite the peace talks between the government and the Taliban. This has been held in Qatar since the end of last year.
The COVAX program is an international initiative to ensure that less prosperous countries also have access to corona vaccines. That program is expected to deliver enough vaccines to around 20 percent of the Afghan population this year, an Afghan health official said. According to him, that could take another six months.
Afghanistan has reported nearly 55,000 corona infections and 2,390 deaths from the virus. Experts warn that many infections go unnoticed because little is tested. Some Afghans also have limited access to medical facilities.
Support for vaccination campaigns cannot be taken for granted in the region. In neighbouring Pakistan, teams have repeatedly been attacked in recent years to vaccinate people against polio.
Radical clergy and extremists have argued there that the polio vaccine is intended to sterilize Muslims and that vaccination teams consist of Western spies.