Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay by Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Donors from the United States will allow $280 million to be transferred from a trust fund frozen to aid Afghanistan in its humanitarian crisis. Five sources close to the matter confirmed this on Friday.

According to sources speaking on condition de anonyme, there were no objections at this time to UNICEF and the World Food Program transfers from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, (ARTF) which is administered the World Bank.

Any one of 31 ARTF donors could lodge objections to the transfer. The United States being the largest of these, is the most powerful. The spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed that no objections would be made by the United States to the transfer.

This money would increase Afghan food security as well as health programs. Afghanistan is currently in a serious humanitarian and economic crisis. The situation was exacerbated by the Taliban’s overthrow of the country in August after the Western-backed government fell and U.S. troops were forced to withdraw.

USA and other donor countries cut financial aid to Afghanistan, making it dependent on them for 20 years. More than $9 billion in hard currency assets was also frozen.

The United Nations is warning that nearly 23 million people – about 55% of the population – are facing extreme levels of hunger, with nearly 9 million at risk of famine as winter takes hold in the impoverished, landlocked country.

The ARTF money can be used to channel it through UNICEF or WFP, which are both members of the U.N. Family. This is a method to obtain funding for the basic necessities in a way that doesn’t necessarily involve U.S. sanction.

Reuters exclusively reported Dec. 1, that $280 million had been transferred from the ARTF into the agencies by the World Bank Board.

A source claimed that an ARTF steering Committee had approved the transfer Dec. 3. The trust fund donors were given until Friday to object.

Four people familiar with the situation said no one expected the donors to object. The transfer was approved by four sources.

Source: “It would shock a lot of people to object,” one source stated.

Laurel Miller is a former U.S. acting special representative for Afghanistan or Pakistan. She criticized the taping of the ARTF to provide humanitarian assistance and said money should come directly from other sources. The $1.5 billion fund could be used to support a massive initiative to stop the fall of institutions that have been inactive for many months.

Miller said that “we’re speaking about the collapse of public services which serve Afghan people.” Miller heads the Asia program for the International Crisis Group. A think tank. “That’s not about helping the Taliban. That’s about helping Afghans who need a functioning state. They also need food aid.