Herat receiving mounting numbers of IDPs

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan reported on Tuesday that an estimated 400 families had left the drought-stricken areas of rural Herat, Ghor and Badghis provinces in the west and northwest in the latter part of August. It said they were arriving in the western city of Herat, where other groups of drought victims from Badghis, Faryab, Ghor and other provinces had already brought the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to some 8,200. Local authorities have estimated that up to 30 more families were arriving each day, the Office of the UN Coordinator stated. The new arrivals, it said, were leaving areas where rain-fed crops had failed and, in some cases, where access to potable water had become difficult. Most of the people were heading to IDP camps in the city hosting people previously displaced in 1997. WFP said it planned to deliver 8,000 mt of wheat to approximately 160,000 people in the worst affected areas of Ghor before winter, in an effort to reduce drought-related migration. The effort to help some 240,000 people in Ghor and western Badghis was being hampered by poor roads and land mines, said WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume.