DATE=6/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=AFGHAN/DROUGHT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263321
BYLINE=AYAZ GUL
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations says Afghanistan faces
a record wheat shortfall this year because of a
prolonged drought in the country. U-N officials
say the drought is the worst in thirty years and
could affect between a half and three-quarters of
Afghanistan's twenty million people. Ayaz Gul
has the details from Islamabad.
TEXT: U-N World Food Program representative for
Afghanistan, Mike Sackett, says that last year
Afghanistan faced a record wheat shortage of one-
point-one million tons. But Mr. Sackett says,
this year the shortage will be more than doubled
because of the drought.
/// SACKETT ACT ONE ///
We have just had a report issued on what we
call our crop and food supply assessment
mission and this shows that the deficit in
the crop year that's just about to start in
Afghanistan, is as high as 2.3 million
tons. In total, Afghanistan needs about
four million tons of cereals and more than
half of this will have to be imported in
the year ahead because of the effect of
drought particularly over the last winter
and spring.
/// END ACT ///
On Thursday, the United Nations dropped one ton
of relief supplies to a remote area (the Dara-e-
Suf region) in northern Afghanistan. The world
body has called for 67-million dollars in aid to
ensure food security, water supplies and health
care for drought-affected people in the country.
Mr. Sackett says the W-F-P has sufficient
supplies to distribute to most severely affected
people until the end of November.
/// SACKETT ACT TWO ///
What we are trying to do now is encourage
the donors to provide us additional
resources so we can take care of food needs
through the winter months and in fact
through to June next year. So we do have
the capacity to respond for the next five
months, we want to secure our capacity for
the next seven months.
/// END ACT ///
The United Nations says the Afghan drought has
severely affected livestock and farmers who are
dependent on rain. Mr. Sackett says so far,
there are no reports of human losses because of
the drought.
/// SACKETT ACT THREE ///
We have had no confirmed reports of deaths
to date and in fact even the nutritional
indicators so far do not show anything
alarming. But from our experience in these
situations we believe we have to act now to
prevent problems in the months ahead.
/// END ACT ///
The drought is the latest blow to hit
Afghanistan. In the last 20 years, the country
has endured earthquakes and foreign occupation,
and it is now suffering a seemingly endless civil
war. /// OPT /// In addition, the United
Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan last
November to punish the ruling Taleban movement
for its unwillingness to hand over suspected
terrorist Osama bin Laden. The Saudi-born
Islamic militant is wanted by the United States
for allegedly masterminding 1998 bombings of two
U-S embassies in East Africa that killed more
than 200 people. /// END
OPT /// (Signed)
NEB/AG/KL
09-Jun-2000 08:28 AM EDT (09-Jun-2000 1228 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
