A child carries water taken from a public tap in Kandahar city, Afghanistan, March 22, 2022. Photo: Xinhua/VNA

The Bank halted four projects worth some 600 million USD in late March due to concerns about Taliban's ban on girls attending public high school. Officials decided to "resume preparations" for three non-education projects in Afghanistan worth about 450 million USD in the wake of the country's economic crisis worsened by rising food and energy prices related to the conflict in Ukraine.

The World Bank last week warned of a bleak outlook for the Afghan economy, saying per capita income fell by more than a third in the last four months of 2021 after the Taliban took power in mid-August 2021. The Bank said about 37% of Afghan households currently cannot afford food, while 33% can barely meet their family's food needs.