Kofi Annan has appealed for $584 million in fresh emergency aid for Afghans. The United Nations Secretary General appealed for the aid in order to alleviate what is now being described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has urged nations to build a "humanitarian coalition" for Afghans that would match the military alliance against Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban may be willing to have talks with the US civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said that his government would accept mediation involving Mr Jackson. The Taliban has, however, denied Mr Jackson's claim that he had been invited to Kabul.
The leader of the Taliban today warned his citizens not to collaborate with the United States. The US military has been building its presence in the Gulf region for over a week.
The US has repeatedly demanded that the Taliban hand over Mr bin Laden, the Saudi fundamentalist suspected of masterminding the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Five years to the day after his regime swept to power, Mullah Mohammad Omar, said that those who co-operated with the US would face the same fate as Afghans who helped the Soviet Union in its ten-year occupation.
The Taliban fighters tortured former Soviet-installed President Najibullah, castrated him and dragged his body through the streets of Kabul before hanging it from a lamppost.
Even though the Taliban was, until recent days, recognised by only three countries throughout the world, Afghanistan has traditionally celebrated 27 September.
Today, however, there seems little for them to celebrate. Afghans, fearing US attacks, have been leaving their homes in droves, hoping to cross the border into Afghanistan.
But Pakistan has been allowing only a trickle of refugees to cross, creating a food shortage near the borders which aid workers say is reaching disastrous proportions.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it expects over 1.5 million Afghans to flee the country and join 3.5 million already in camps in Iran and Pakistan -- the biggest refugee group in the world.
The UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance said that the number of Afghans inside the country who would depend on outside assistance to survive the coming winter would reach 7.5 million. "Their grip on survival is definitely slipping," spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said in Islamabad yesterday.
Yesterday, Mullah Mohammad Omar urged the tens of thousands of Afghans who have been fleeing their homes to return immediately. In a message distributed by his Information Minister, he claimed that the threat of immediate American strikes had receded.
But his repeated statements in recent days, coupled with advances by the opposition Northern Alliance in the north of the country, suggest that his grip on power is receding.
