Afghanistan's Taliban authorities said today they will resume issuing passports in Kabul, giving hope to citizens who feel threatened living under the Islamists' rule.
Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape a growing economic as well as a humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an "avalanche of hunger".
Authorities will start issuing the documents from today at Kabul's passport office, Alam Gul Haqqani, the head of the passport department in the interior ministry, told reporters.
The Taliban stopped issuing passports shortly after their return to power on 15 August, as tens of thousands of people scrambled to Kabul's only airport in a bid to catch any international flight that could evacuate them.
In October, authorities reopened the passport office in Kabul only to suspend work days later as a flood of applications caused the biometric equipment to break down.
"All the technical issues have now been resolved," Mr Haqqani said, adding that initially travel documents will be given to those who had already applied before the office suspended work.
New applications will be accepted from 10 January.
Many Afghans who wanted to visit neighbouring Pakistan for medical treatment have also been blocked in the absence of valid passports.
Issuing passports - and allowing people to leave amid the growing humanitarian crisis - is seen as a test of the Taliban's commitment to the international community.
The Taliban are pressing donors to restore billions of dollars in aid that was suspended when the previous western-backed regime imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.
The abrupt withholding of aid has amounted to an "unprecedented" fiscal shock for an economy already battered by drought and decades of war, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
The crisis has forced many to sell household possessions to buy food.
