Senior U.N. Officials Helped Taliban Extort Aid from U.S.-Backed NGOs, Government Watchdog Finds

Senior United Nations officials have in recent years routinely assisted the Taliban in extorting aid from U.S.-backed non-governmental organizations (NGOs), according to a report released Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

Afghanistan received nearly $11 billion in humanitarian assistance between 2021, when the U.S. military withdrew from the country, and April of this year, when the Trump administration’s State Department slashed aid to Afghanistan. Roughly 36 percent of that $11 billion came from U.S. taxpayers and donors, according to the SIGAR report, making the U.S. Afghanistan’s largest patron.

After seizing control of the country in the wake of the botched U.S. withdrawal in April, 2021, Taliban leaders began directing the flow of aid to their preferred NGOs and keeping much of the aid for themselves in the form of kickbacks facilitated by U.N. officials, according to the report.

“Taliban interference takes multiple forms—including diverting aid to Taliban-favored groups, using their regulatory power to choose which nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are permitted to operate, extorting NGO staff, and colluding with senior U.N. officials to demand kickbacks from U.N. vendors,” the report reads.

In addition to facilitating Taliban extortion, some U.N. officials are themselves engaged in corruption, demanding bribes of anywhere from 5 to 50 percent of a proposed contract before awarding the contract to a given NGO, according to the report.

The majority of U.N.-facilitated aid never makes it to Afghans in need: “After all the layers of taxes, fees, bribery, and extortion, maybe around 30 to 40 percent of donor funds actually reached the [Afghanistan] population,” one person involved in aid distribution told SIGAR.

The kickbacks orchestrated with the help of U.N. officials are a boon to Taliban operations. Interviewees revealed, for example, that “major U.N. contractors provide ‘direct support to the Taliban in terms of cash, food, and even logistical support.'”

The Taliban is willing to resort to force to ensure that NGOs operating in the country comply with its demands, SIGAR found.

“In Afghanistan, SIGAR found that the Taliban use every means at their disposal, including force, to ensure that aid goes where they want it to go, as opposed to where donors intend,” the report said. “The Taliban use their regulatory power to determine which NGOs may operate, and under what conditions; they block and redirect aid to ensure that it benefits Pashtun communities and not Hazara or Tajik communities; and they refuse to allow NGOs to operate unless they hire Taliban-affiliated businesses, NGOs, and individuals.”

The exorbitant administrative costs and complicated fee structures used by the U.N. and the NGOs they work with create an opportunity for “malign actors to divert aid or otherwise engage in corruption,” according to SIGAR. The report notes that a “2023 United States Institute of Peace report found that the Taliban had infiltrated and influenced most U.N.-managed assistance programs.”

The SIGAR report is based on interview with more than 90 people, including U.S. government officials, NGO officials, and members of the Afghan government.

The Trump administration paused all foreign aid for 90 days upon taking office in January 2025, and in February, the president signed an executive order issuing a review of U.S. involvement in funding international organizations. According to the SIGAR report, by April 2025, almost all foreign aid to Afghanistan was halted. The U.S. and other donors, however, maintain on an official level that the Taliban was not receiving any funding.

National Review reached out to the U.N. for comment on the report, but the organization did not respond by the time of publication.