The United Nations has set up a special trust fund to provide urgently-needed cash directly to Afghans through a system that taps into donor funds frozen since the Taliban takeover in August.

According to a report by Aljazeera, the aim is to inject liquidity into Afghan households to permit them to survive this winter and remain in their homeland despite the turmoil.

UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) administrator  Achim Steiner said Germany, a first contributor, had pledged 50 million euros ($58m) to the fund, and that it was in touch with other donors to mobilise resources.