KABUL: At least three leading international aid agencies have partially resumed life-saving work in Afghanistan, after assurances from the Taliban authorities that Afghan women can continue to work in the health sector.

Hundreds of NGOs have been instrumental in trying to address one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with half of Afghanistan’s 38 million population hungry and three million children at risk of malnutrition.

CARE, Save the Children, and International Rescue Committee (IRC) suspended their operations in late December in protest at a government order banning Afghan women from aid work, the latest rollback of women’s rights in the country.