Food aid urgently needed

WFP appealed for urgent food aid on Tuesday for one million people in Tajikistan on the brink of starvation, due to a devastating drought, which has forced people to sell parts of their homes and to rummage for scraps of wheat in rat holes. "Come January, these people are going to face severe food shortages," the WFP Tajikistan country director, Ardag Meghdessian, told IRIN. The food agency says 67,000 mt of food, worth US $36 million, is urgently needed to meet the needs of the most badly drought-affected people from January to June 2002. "We have enough food until the end of this year, but we are concerned about next year," Meghdessian said. He warned that a large food gap would have a dramatic impact on those living in rural and remote areas. "The spectre of famine looms for many of these people, who have already depleted their meagre savings and have virtually no employment opportunities," he said. Already one of the poorest of the former Soviet Republics, Tajikistan has been suffering from a devastating two-year drought, is still struggling with the aftermath of a gruelling five-year civil war, and is facing severe economic hardships. The ongoing severe weather conditions have hit much of the region, particularly Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, Meghdessian said WFP in Tajikistan had not had as much donor support as other countries in need. "The world's attention has been on Afghanistan, but the situation is bad here too, and these problems have been overshadowed," he said. Tajikistan's cereal output in 2001, estimated at only 303,000 mt, is down by 36 percent compared to the average of the last five years. Tajikistan needs more than one million tonnes of cereals a year for domestic consumption. With commercial imports not expected to exceed 400,000 mt, Tajikistan will have to grapple with an uncovered gap of 341,000 mt until mid 2002. WFP has been active in Tajikistan for the last eight years, providing some 168,000 mt of food assistance to the most affected by civil war and crop failures. "We are hoping that the generosity of the donor community towards the drought victims in Afghanistan will extend further north and help the hungry poor in Tajikistan, who are suffering from the same drought," he said.