Red Cross warns aid groups not enough to stave off Afghan humanitarian crisis

Eftekhar, 14, carries a bag filled with plastic bottles he collected, to be sold, as he walks in a playground in Kabul, Afghanistan, October 22, 2021. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

DUBAI (Reuters) -The Red Cross on Friday urged the international community to engage with Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers, saying that aid groups on their own would be unable to stave off a humanitarian crisis.

Afghanistan has been plunged into crisis by the abrupt end of billions of dollars in foreign assistance following the collapse of the Western-backed government and return to power by the Taliban in August.