KABUL (Xinhua) – More than 250,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their provinces across Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover in mid-August last year, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations of the Afghan caretaker government said on Friday.
“Over 250,000 IDPs have been shifted via ground transportation to their main provinces during the past six months,” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that efforts were underway to address the problems of the remaining IDPs in the country.
Over 550,000 Afghans out of nearly 7 million Afghan refugees and asylum seekers have returned home, mostly from Iran and Pakistan, during the past six months, according to the statement.
Since the start of 2021, nearly 360,000 people have been displaced by conflicts, and about 5.5 million people have been displaced since 2012, according to figures provided by Afghan officials.
Deputy Prime Minister of Afghan caretaker government Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar also called on Afghan investors to return to the country.
He made the remarks at the Afghan National Private Sector Conference held in Kabul on Thursday, the government said in a statement.
“Baradar called on Afghan investors living abroad to return to the country and invest here, as security of investors and their assets will be guaranteed,” the statement said.
“International sanctions are being eased day by day and we are trying to provide more facilities in industry, trade and investment, and efforts are being made to improve the economic situation,” Baradar was quoted as saying.
On Tuesday, the World Bank board of directors decided to unfreeze 1 billion U.S. dollars of the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund which was frozen after the Taliban’s takeover on Aug. 15, 2021, according to Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), the country’s central bank.
The DAB welcomed the move by the World Bank as a goodwill gesture, calling for further cooperation with the global financial institution in the Afghan banking and financial sectors, according to a statement of DAB.