Donors support $ 280 million transfer to help prevent famine in Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis News

Funds managed by the World Bank will provide $ 180 million to the World Food Program for food and $ 100 million to UNICEF for health services.

International donors have agreed to transfer $ 280 million from a frozen trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to support food and health in Afghanistan, the World Bank said it wants to help a country struggling with hunger and economic downturn.

The World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund will provide $ 180 million to WFP this year to increase food security and nutrition operations and $ 100 million to provide basic health services to UNICEF, the bank said on Friday.

The purpose of the fund is to support food security and health programs in Afghanistan, which is plunged into a severe economic and humanitarian crisis in August. The Taliban conquered the country The West-backed government fell and was the last U.S. troops withdrew.

The United States and other donors cut funding for the 20-year war in Afghanistan, and More than $ 9 billion they froze the country’s hard currency assets.

The United Nations has almost warned 23 million people -About 55 percent of the population is suffering from severe hunger, and nearly nine million are at risk of starvation as winter approaches in impoverished and landless countries.

Using money from the Trust Fund for Reconstruction and channeling it through WFP and UNICEF, both members of the UN family, seems to be a way to get basic needs funding into the country so that it does not involve US anti-Taliban sanctions.

“This decision is the first step in re-using ARTF portfolio funds to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan at this critical time,” the bank said, adding that the agencies had a ground presence to provide services directly to Afghans “with their policies and procedures.”

“These ARTF funds will enable UNICEF to provide basic and essential health services to 12.5 million people and integrate one million people, while WFP will be able to provide food assistance to 2.7 million people and feed almost 840,000 mothers and children. “Help,” he added. .

“They need more food support”

Earlier on Friday, the Reuters news agency reported only that donors were expected to accept the $ 280 million transfer.

On December 1, Reuters reported that the World Bank Council had encouraged the transfer of ARTF funds to both agencies.

In its statement, the bank said it would “continue to work with ARTF donors to help the people of Afghanistan unlock additional ARTF funds.”

Laurel Miller, a former U.S. and Pakistani special representative in the United States, criticized ARTF’s decision to seek humanitarian assistance, saying the money should come from other sources and that the $ 1.5 billion should be used for a large-scale crackdown. state-owned organizations that have been unpaid for months.

“We are talking about the collapse of public services that serve the people of Afghanistan,” said Miller, who oversees the International Crisis Group’s Asian think tank.

“It simply came to our notice then. That is a state that works to help Afghans who need it. They need more than food. ”

Many people in the capital Kabul have resorted to selling household goods to feed themselves and buying coal to heat their homes in the winter.