Potential for famine “apocalyptic” - US aid worker

The US is expected to announce a significant new tranche of funds for Afghanistan in the coming weeks - the result of its recent mission to the northern and western areas, which found the potential for widespread famine to be “apocalyptic”, a US famine expert told a recent press briefing. Tom Hushek, refugee coordinator with the US Agency for International Development [USAID] in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and a member of the four-strong team, told IRIN that this first official US humanitarian mission into Afghanistan since 1998 was “genuinely alarmed and surprised” by the severity of the humanitarian crisis. He said the US was developing a two-pronged approach to funding, which would focus on food aid and longer-term sustainable assistance, such as seed and livestock provision, and income-generation projects. Of particular concern, according to Hushek, is that a great part of the effects of the ongoing drought and displacement are being “masked” by what is a traditional network of sharing among families and villagers. Families are pooling resources in order to give preferential feeding to children. The fear is that when resources hit rock bottom, which, according to Hushek, appears imminent, there will be a precipitous drop in health and nutritional status, leading to an increase in death rates and “massive displacement”. “We found that Afghanistan is on the verge of a widespread famine. If steps are not taken quickly to get more support to the people most in need, many will die. The international community, with the help of US funding, has already established a system of delivering aid, despite the ongoing war and other obstacles, but more projects and funding and a more cooperative approach from local authorities is critical to save more lives. The single best thing that could happen to Afghanistan now would be an end to the war,” Hushek said. The US, which is the largest single donor for the Afghan people, expects that the mission’s findings will help to enhance the targeting of US assistance and defining areas where additional aid will be of use. One such area, according to Hushek, could be a formal mechanism for screening the 80,000 Afghan refugees living in deteriorating conditions in the Jalozai camp in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Such a mechanism could define which of the refugees had the right to asylum and which were economic migrants willing and able to return to Afghanistan if assisted, he said. “UNHCR has put on the table the offer of joint screening with the [provincial] government of Pakistan, but unfortunately the government has rejected this solution for now. Our funding could certainly be used to put in place a strong screening mechanism,” Hushek said. He maintained that the refugees at Jalozai “are being used by some officials here [in Pakistan] to send a signal to Afghans on the other side of the border that Afghans are no longer welcome in Pakistan”. Calling it an inhumane way of treating people in need, Hushek said: “It still strikes me as strange that a government which has provided protection to so many refugees for so many years, and a country where many of the people are still very generous to Afghans in need, would refuse to take steps to help resolve the situation at Jalozai.” He added that the US believed that the “dire situation” facing the Afghans at Jalozai called for the fast provision of emergency services and distributions. The growing crisis at Jalozai, where 19 people, including 11 children, have died from disease and heat afflictions in the past two weeks, calls for more space, either adjacent to the current camp or a new location, Hushek said. Equally important was full access for the delivery of goods and services. “Many agencies and NGOs are moving ahead to deliver some services even without the full information a proper registration would provide,” he said.