A day after Afghanistan International’s report about the Taliban’s recent order to ban the operation of organisations active in the education sector, the UN Children’s Agency expressed concerns about the decision.

Samantha Mort, UNICEF’s Afghanistan spokesperson, said that the agency will seek clarification from the Taliban.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that UNICEF was following up with the Taliban over whether international organisations would be excluded from education projects, which could affect hundreds of thousands of students.

UNICEF has warned that if international non-governmental organisations are not allowed to operate in the education sector, it may impact thousands of Afghan students.

In May, UNICEF announced that the organisation holds 21,000 education classes across Afghanistan. UNICEF had also announced that it will hold short-term educational courses for girls in Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

UNICEF’s Afghanistan spokesperson has stated that if the international organisations are not allowed to operate, more than 300,000 girls may “lose out on quality learning”.

The Taliban has not commented on the matter yet. However, an audio file from Wahidullah Hashemi, the group’s director of international relations of the Ministry of Education, has been reviewed by Afghanistan International in which he said that foreign organisations have one month to stop their projects in the education sector in Afghanistan. According to him, currently, the verbal order has been conveyed to these organisations.