Donors to the World Bank-administered Af-ghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) have agreed to decide about a transfer of funds to humanitar-ian aid agencies by Dec. 10, a World Bank spokesperson said on Friday, media reports said.
The World Bank’s board this week backed transferring $280 million from the $1.5 bil-lion trust fund, which was fro-zen after the Taliban took over the Afghan government in Au-gust, to the World Food Pro-gramme and UNICEF, Reuters reported on Wednes-day, citing sources familiar with the plan.
The World Bank spokesper-son gave no details on the proposal, but said ARTF do-nors met on Friday and agreed to make a decision on transfers out of the fund in one week.
No further details about the ARTF meeting were immedi-ately available.
The US Treasury Department had no comment.
Afghanistan’s 39 million peo-ple face a collapsing econ-omy, a winter of food short-ages and growing poverty since the Taliban seized power at the end of August as the last US troops withdrew from 20 years of war.
Afghan experts have said the aid would help, but big ques-tions remain, including how to get funds into Afghanistan without exposing any financial institutions involved to US sanctions.
Donors to the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Re-construction Trust Fund (ARTF) have agreed to decide about a transfer of funds to humanitarian aid agencies by Dec. 10, a World Bank spokesperson said on Friday. —Agencies
