UN food agency warns of hunger threat in Afghanistan, appeals for support
27 October -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that hundreds of thousands of poor Afghans will face starvation in the coming months if the agency does not get the resources it needs to continue emergency operations during Afghanistan's worst drought in decades.
"We received some donations and pledges over the last few months but they fell short of our appeals," said WFP Country Director Gerard van Dijk. "The devastating drought has forced us to accelerate deliveries of food and our resources are quickly depleting."
WFP needs an estimated $54 million worth of food aid to maintain its life-saving activities in war-torn Afghanistan, where up to 12 million people are affected by the drought. The agency is striving to feed over 3 million severely affected people - twice as many as it fed in the first six months of this year before the drought hit.
While current supplies will last through next February, the agency said it was not too soon to sound the alarm because of the time it takes for pledges of food donations to materialize and reach those in need. "If we do not receive new pledges this month, we will have to cut down or stop our operations in Afghanistan at a time when Afghans will be in the midst of the pre-harvest hungry season," Mr. van Dijk warned.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that the number of people fleeing fighting in northeastern Afghanistan rose sharply this week, with some 5,000 Afghans crossing into Pakistan. "UNHCR is concerned that continued fighting and the onset of winter may force more Afghans to flee to Pakistan," spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters during a briefing in Geneva. He added that the fighting, combined with the drought, had displaced thousands of people inside Afghanistan as well.
Since last month, renewed fighting has pushed 28,000 Afghans into Pakistan, according to UNHCR. The agency is spending $950,000 to meet the urgent shelter, food, water and health needs of the new arrivals. Earlier this week, UNHCR transferred another 1,200 Afghans from a makeshift transit site in Jallozai, where conditions were extremely poor, to the "New Shamshatoo refugee village," where the refugees have been provided with relief aid. A medical team put together by UNHCR and the Government is visiting the camp to assess the condition of the arrivals.
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