Andrea Shalal and Arshad Mohammad

WASHINGTON (Reuters). The World Bank Board has approved the transfer $280million from a frozen trust account to two aid agencies for Afghanistan in order to deal with a brewing humanitarian crisis following the withdrawal of the U.S., according to sources.

Sources said that the transfer must be approved by the 31 donors of the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund. According to sources, Friday was the expected date for donors.

On Tuesday, members of the World Bank board met to discuss the possibility of transferring as much as $500 million out of $1.5 billion from the ARTF to humanitarian assistance agencies. This was according to people who were familiar with the matter previously.

The 39 million Afghans now face an economic crisis, food shortages and increasing poverty just three months after Taliban took power. This was the end of 20 years of conflict.

Experts in Afghanistan have stated that the aid will help. However, there are still big questions, such as how funds can be brought into Afghanistan and whether financial institutions should be exposed to U.S. sanctions.

Although the U.S. Treasury provided banks with “comfort mails” to assure them that they could process humanitarian transactions, concerns about U.S. sanction continue to block passage of basic supplies such as food and medicine.

Every decision to redirect ARTF money must be approved by all donors. The United States was the largest.

Treasury and White House had not yet commented on World Bank board endorsement for transferring funds to UNICEF or World Food Programme.

The spokesperson for the World Bank confirmed that the board of the bank had addressed the matter and that donors would meet Friday.

According to a spokesperson, the board discussed a way to move funds from the… ARTF into humanitarian aid agencies that have presence and logistics on ground in order to provide basic humanitarian assistance directly to people living in the country. “The ARTF Donors’ Steering Committee is scheduled to meet on Dec. 3 to consider transfers out from the fund.”