The World Bank will consider a compromise plan to release humanitarian aid for Afghanistan by shifting funds intended for rebuilding efforts, a source told AFP Monday.

The bank's management will discuss the proposal at an informal board meeting on Tuesday to re-direct funds from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) "to support humanitarian efforts through UN and other humanitarian agencies with presence and logistic capabilities in the country," the source said, without providing further details.

The United Nations has warned that around 22 million Afghans, or more than half the country, will face an "acute" food shortage in the winter months due to the combined effects of drought caused by global warming and an economic crisis aggravated by the Taliban takeover in August.

The financial crunch worsened after Washington froze about $10 billion of the country's reserves and deteriorated further after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted Afghanistan's access to funding.

The World Bank move is part of a compromise struck with the United Nations and the US government, and could shift up to $500 million from the ARTF to humanitarian groups, according to a report by the Reuters news agency citing people familiar with the plan.

That would unlock aid but bypass the Taliban.

The next steps and timing of the release would be up to the ARTF donors, the source told AFP.

The fund currently has 34 donors and was "the largest single source of funding for Afghanistan's development, financing up to 30 percent of Afghanistan's civilian budget, and supporting core functions of the government," according to the website.

Zara blocked in France over Uyghur probe
Bordeaux (AFP) Nov 29, 2021 - The expansion of a Zara clothing store in France was blocked over a probe into whether its parent company Inditex benefits from the use of forced labour of Uyghurs in China, officials said Monday.

Zara France wanted to double the surface area of its shop in the centre of the southern city of Bordeaux, but on November 9 the regional commission charged with examining the project voted against it.

The commission members who voted against the expansion invoked the existence of the probe into whether the Spanish firm benefits from the use of forced labour by members of the Uyghur minority by its Chinese suppliers.

"It was a political decision by us," said Alain Garnier, one of the elected officials on the commission.

"We wanted to send a strong signal by blocking the expansion of stores that don't have sufficient control over their suppliers," he added.

French magistrates opened in June an inquiry into allegations by rights groups that four fashion firms including Zara-owner Inditex profited from forced labour of the Uyghur minority in China.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the Xinjiang region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

Inditex disputed at the time that it had used cotton from Xinjiang and said it has strict traceability controls in place.

"With the impact of fast fashion on the environment and suspicions about the use of forced labour of Uyghurs, Zara's project seemed to us to breach the sustainable development criteria" taken into consideration by the commission, said another member, Sandrine Jacotot.

Jacotot, who is also Bordeaux's deputy mayor for commerce, said it was now up Zara to appeal the decision on the national level "to explain the company respects" the sustainable development criteria.

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Zara blocked in France over Uyghur probe
Bordeaux (AFP) Nov 29, 2021
The expansion of a Zara clothing store in France was blocked over a probe into whether its parent company Inditex benefits from the use of forced labour of Uyghurs in China, officials said Monday. Zara France wanted to double the surface area of its shop in the centre of the southern city of Bordeaux, but on November 9 the regional commission charged with examining the project voted against it. The commission members who voted against the expansion invoked the existence of the probe into whethe ... read more