DUSHANBE - THE United States will boost its aid to the Central Asian state of Tajikistan by almost 10 million dollars to help stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan, the US embassy said on Tuesday.
The 9.42 million dollar (S$13.85 million) assistance package signed by US Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson is designed to help the ex-Soviet state combat a massive influx of cheap heroin and opium from its unstable southern neighbour.
Since the 2001 ouster of the fundamentalist Taleban regime in Afghanistan by NATO forces, opium production has skyrocketed in the war-wracked state, providing as much as 90 per cent of the world's heroin supply.
Northern neighbour Tajikistan, a sparsely populated ex-Soviet state, accounted for 32 per cent of the heroin seized in the five Central Asian states in 2008, and 58 per cent of the raw opium, according to UN statistics.
Washington has provided Dushanbe with more than 37 million dollars in counter-narcotics aid since 1992, establishing fortified border checkpoints as well as equipping and training interior ministry troops.
Still, according to UN figures, the amount of drugs trafficked through Central Asia, which increasingly includes processed heroin, has continued to rise steadily in recent years. -- AFP
