November 5, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Aid agencies use boats, trains and planes to get food into Afghanistan

LONDON, November 5, Graphic News: The United Nations World Food Programme plans to use rail, road and air drops to deliver emergency aid from Pakistan, Iran, the Baltic ports and former Soviet republics to parts of northern Afghanistan that will be cut off by snow within weeks.

ÒWe are planning air drops because we have three areas in Afghanistan that usually get blocked by snow come early December,Ó WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour told reporters.

Mansour urged a greater response to the WFP appeal for funds to enable it to feed the Afghans, whose country is suffering the worst drought in its 23 years of war as well as the intense U.S.-led military campaign to punish the Taliban for their refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden.

ÒWFP has secured about 61 percent of the $257 million appeal that we made a few weeks ago,Ó Mansour added. ÒAlthough it is a generous start, the bottom line is that we need more food and cash in the country now in order to keep up.Ó

The WFP has bought 17,000 tonnes of wheat -- with an immediate delivery of 3,000 tonnes -- from Iran and is in the process of buying 20,000 tonnes of food from Kazakhstan.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has also announced it is buying $11.2 million worth of wheat from Kazakhstan to get food to Afghans as fast as possible -- at least 160,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat are already en route to Afghanistan.

The British government is working with Emercom -- the Russian ministry for civil defence, emergencies and natural disasters -- to deliver $880,000 of food. Emercom will organize convoys driving from Kyrgyzstan, through Tajikistan, and across the Afghan border.

The European Commission has pledged to supply 4,500 tonnes of wheat as part of the WFP plan to deliver 52,000 tonnes of aid to needy Afghans each month.

The aid agenciesÕ most urgent deadline is the end of this week (November 10), the official start of winter in Afghanistan, when vehicle access to 700,000 people in the central highlands and the north-east opposition stronghold of the Panjsher Valley will be cut by snow. The UN calculates it needs to get 23,000 tonnes of food into these areas before the onset of winter. So far only a few thousand tonnes have made it.

ÒWe want to bring as much food as needed for the winter months for the people of these areas before early December,Ó Mansour said. ÒBut day after day this seems unlikely to happen and thatÕs why we have started planning for air drops.Ó

Humanitarian deliveries would also be coming through another route, from the central Asian state of Uzbekistan, said aid officials in Tashkent.

Aid agencies have begun to stockpile food and thousands of winter coats in the southern Uzbek city of Termez. The city possesses huge warehouse capacity as well as extensive rail, road and air links and a considerable barge fleet to cross the Amu Darya -- the river that runs along the Afghan border.

Experts say the cityÕs infrastructure and population -- once used to move Soviet troops and equipment into Afghanistan -- could easily adapt to deliver humanitarian aid.

The U.S. Air Force has also continued its supply of aid packages into Afghanistan. Since the start of its military campaign, Washington has dropped more than one million packages of food into Afghanistan.

The drops have been criticised by several international aid agencies because the bright yellow food packets are the same colour as unexploded cluster bombs. Children could Òmistake the colourful yellow bomblets released by cluster bombs for either air-dropped food packets -- which are also yellow -- or for toys,Ó Andrew Wilder of the group Save the Children told reporters.
/ENDS
Sources: UNWFP. UNHCR, Associated Press