ABU DHABI // The UAE will send US$250 million to Afghanistan for development projects, the Government said yesterday.
The funds will be used mostly for housing projects in Kabul and other cities, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, jointly announced with his Afghan counterpart Dr Zalmai Rassoul. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will provide the money.
In the past eight years, six medical centres and a hospital funded by the UAE have opened in Afghanistan as Emirati troops work to provide humanitarian and security assistance.
Zayed University, 11 schools and a library have been built with UAE funds and volunteers.
There are 38 new mosques, several roads and 160 drinking wells thanks to support from the Emirates.
The UAE committed more than Dh1.26 billion to Afghanistan in 2009 - or 14 per cent of foreign aid that year - according to the Office for the Co-ordination of Foreign Aid.