Food aid resumes

WFP food trucks arrived in Afghanistan on Monday to replenish some of the emergency food stocks in the capital, Kabul, and the western province of Herat, a WFP official confirmed to IRIN. "We have heard that the trucks have arrived safely in Kabul," Khaled Mansour, the regional spokesman for WFP in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said. "If we succeed with these deliveries, then we will continue with larger quantities of food," he added. A total of 418 mt of wheat was sent from Pakistan to Afghanistan over the weekend. Leaving from Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, eight trucks bound for Kabul, carrying 218 mt of wheat, moved on Saturday on a trial basis. Six trucks also left Quetta, capital of Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, on Sunday morning, carrying 200 mt of wheat. These trucks will be split into two convoys after crossing into Afghanistan. The first 100 mt are destined for Kabul, and the rest for Herat. "We are using two routes into the capital due to security reasons," Mansour explained. Aid workers say they want to make sure the food reaches those who are in desperate need of it following fears of its falling into the wrong hands. This is the first time United Nations' relief supplies have entered Afghanistan since the suspension of aid deliveries to Afghanistan on 12 September. Deteriorating security, and lack of commercial transport had forced WFP to halt food shipments shortly after it had launched a multi-million dollar appeal to save millions of Afghans from the hunger caused by a vicious cycle of drought and war. In addition to the 418 mt consignment, a further 1,000 mt bound for northeastern Afghanistan left Tajikistan on Monday. Another 400 mt of WFP food will move from neighbouring Turkmenistan into northern Afghanistan, also on Monday. "We are moving in food from all possible directions," Mansour said. WFP local staff, together with aid workers from various NGOs, who were working under very adverse conditions to help avoid starvation in Afghanistan, would distribute the food to the needy Afghans inside the country, he said. At least 5.5 million Afghans are partially or fully dependent on assistance for survival, and more than a million have been displaced over the past year by to a combination of drought and conflict. The food situation is set to worsen, with hundreds and thousands more who are too poor or weak to move from their villages. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed to IRIN that it had on Friday sent urgently needed medical supplies for up to 200 patients, the consignment reaching Kabul late on Saturday. "As far as we know, there were no problems, and we are waiting for them [the trucks and crews] to come [back] before we decide on whether we will move in more supplies," Mark Steinbeck, health and relief coordinator for ICRC, told IRIN. He added that extra transfusion blood was also supplied to ICRC-supported hospitals in Afghanistan. Some 220 mt of UNICEF aid left Peshawar on Saturday bound for non-Taliban controlled areas in northeastern Afghanistan. The consignment comprised food items, blankets, tents, medical backup and warm clothing for children. "It is essential to get winter supplies into Afghanistan as soon as possible," the spokesman for UNICEF Afghanistan, Gordon Weiss, told IRIN on Monday. He added that the supplies would be first be trucked from Peshawar, and then carried by donkeys over difficult terrain. Weiss said four convoys would also be leaving soon for Kabul, the southern province of Kandahar, the eastern city of Jalalabad, and Herat. UNICEF announced last week that it was pre-positioning supplies on borders of Afghanistan, which would be moved in as soon as possible. Supplies would also be sent into Iran, he said.