Friday, August 25, 2000
UN food agency reaches 2,600 needy Afghan families in strife-torn area
25 August -- The United Nations announced today that its World Food Programme (WFP) had succeeded in crossing front lines and bringing aid to a large group of needy people in Afghanistan's strife-torn Dara-e-Suf region.
Michael Semple, the UN Regional Coordinator for Hazarajat, Afghanistan, told reporters in Islamabad today that the UN had made a "successful start" in trying to meet the needs of the people of Dara-e-Suf, which is located in Afghanistan's Samangan Province. He said WFP has delivered 407 metric tonnes of food aid to the troubled area, which has been besieged by fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance while suffering from drought. "There was joy on the mountainside" following the food delivery, he said.
The assistance will reach the most vulnerable of the area's people, providing three months' worth of food rations to 2,600 families. Mr. Semple cautioned, however, that it would be necessary to reach still more people in other areas, noting that "one success is not enough to defeat this widespread problem."
Describing his recent visit to Dara-e-Suf, the UN official said that times were so bad that some families were not baking wheat into bread but rather stretching it by turning it into a thin gruel that could be spooned into small portions. Some children have reportedly died of starvation, while others are severely malnourished. "The hard times are just beginning," he warned. "People do not know how they are going to survive in the coming months."
Mr. Semple warned that without continued UN assistance, there will be more deaths as well as large-scale displacements in the area.
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