KABUL, Afghanistan:  Afghanistan on Thursday received humanitarian assistance, including food and medicines, from five countries, an official said.

The cash-strapped country, which suffered 20 years of war, is now in severe economic crisis, and poverty can be seen everywhere in the capital Kabul with people even begging for bread to survive.

According to Abdul Hadi Hamdarda, an official at Hamid Karzai International Airport, four planes from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Pakistan arrived in Kabul to supply food and medicines to the recently constituted interim Taliban administration.

Afghanistan also received aid from neighboring Turkmenistan by road, said Hamdarda.

Hundreds of people are sleeping in Shahr-e-Nau park, some in plastic tents, because they do not have enough money to return home. They arrived in Kabul in August when the Taliban were taking control of provincial capitals.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who is now acting culture and information minister, announced an interim administration on Monday, along with the establishment of a Ministry of Refugees.

Millions of Afghans have become refugees in different parts of the world, with the majority migrating to neighboring Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Turkey during the 43-year conflict, which began with political unrest in 1978 and was followed by an invasion by the former Soviet Union the next year.

Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the US overthrew the Taliban government and fought with the Taliban fighters for two decades until the last year’s Doha peace deal.-AA