The World Bank (WB) board of directors has decided to allocate $280 million to two humanitarian aid agencies in Afghanistan, Reuters reports
According to the agency, 31 donors to the WB-managed Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund, the largest of which is the US, must approve the transfer of funds before they go to the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A meeting of donors to negotiate the transfer is planned for this Friday.
Earlier, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan and director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asia Department, said Moscow was trying to persuade Washington to unfreeze Afghan assets. According to him, the impression is that the West has deliberately blocked these funds in order to manipulate the militants of the radical Taliban movement.
It will be recalled that the Taliban took control of Afghanistan against the background of the withdrawal of the US military contingent from the republic. The Taliban entered Kabul without a fight on 15 August. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. In early September, the Taliban announced the composition of the provisional government: no country has so far recognised its legitimacy