Afghanistan’s government has revoked the licences of more than half the non-governmental aid groups in the war-shattered country after they did not respond to an order to register, a minister said on Wednesday. The groups included 127 international aid organisations, Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang told AFP. He would not name them. “We asked them to come and register their organisations but they did not do so, so we revoked (the licences of) 1,620 NGOs,” he said. The minister said there had been about 2,350 NGOs in the country, more than 300 of them international ones, operating in Afghanistan.The government has repeatedly said some NGOs, most of them local, are involved in widespread corruption and are wasting the billions of dollars that have poured into the country since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001. Early last year then planning minister Ramazan Bachardoust – now a member of the parliament – resigned after President Hamid Karzai opposed his proposal that more than 2,000 NGOs accused of corruption should be ordered to close. Prompted by Bachardoust’s accusations, the government drew up a new law under which aid organisations have to register with their government and report on their activities. Afghanistan is reliant on international aid as it struggles to rebuild after decades of war and conflict while also fighting a Taliban-led insurgency.