Air strikes halt food deliveries

WFP has temporarily suspended food aid deliveries into Afghanistan following US air strikes on the country. "We don't want to put people's lives at risk," Mike Huggins, the WFP spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN on Tuesday. He said local truck companies inside Afghanistan were transporting food, but that it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to drive into the most needy areas.

Huggins confirmed that the last delivery of 200 mt of food aid had arrived in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday morning, following a second round of US strikes on the city. He went on to say that careful consideration would have to be given to planning WFP's next move.

However, WFP is still delivering dry rations to the beneficiaries of its bakeries in Kabul to sustain them until the end of October. Huggins said another convoy of 14 trucks carrying 525 mt was on its way to the western Afghan province of Herat, and that a third convoy with 400 mt had safely arrived in the northern province of Faryab from pre-positioned supplies in Turkmenistan.

"We have pre-positioned supplies on all borders with Afghanistan. This is the best option, and we will continue to do this," he said.

The UN food agency is working with various international NGOs in a race against time. Although there was 8,000 mt of food inside Afghanistan, and local aid workers were continuing to work as much as they could under a communication blackout, there was still an immense need for food, Huggins said. After the events of 11 September, WFP suspended operations but resumed over a week ago, and has since distributed over 14,000 mt inside Afghanistan, reaching up to 1.7 million people.

WFP has also prepared for a possible major influx of Afghans into Pakistan by beefing up food stocks at the border with Afghanistan. "There are 154 mt of high-energy biscuits in Peshawar [capital of the North West Frontier Province - NWFP] to help the refugees on the first few days of arrival, if and when they cross, and another 83 mt of the same in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta," WFP's regional public affairs spokesman in Islamabad, Khaled Mansour, told reporters on Monday.

In addition to this food aid, US aircraft dropped a further 37,000 packages of food in Afghanistan on Monday. A similar quantity of food was dropped on Sunday. Meanwhile, UNHCR in Pakistan has said it is ready to provide shelter in the form of tents and blankets for up to 100,000 new arrivals. The UN estimates that up to a million Afghans could pour into Pakistan, adding to the 2.5 million already in the country, who fled there during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Yusuf Hassan, the UNHCR spokesman in Islamabad, said preparations were being made for an initial influx of some 300,000 into Pakistan and 80,000 into Iran. A team comprising representatives from UNHCR and Pakistan's Commissioner of Afghan Refugees was in the process of inspecting camp sites in the Tribal Areas of the NWFP.

However, he said the team had had to return to the provincial capital, Peshawar, on Monday after encountering a large demonstration in Landi Kotal near the border with Afghanistan being held in protest against the US-led air strikes.

A total of 32 camp sites have been identified for Afghans in the NWFP. Six are located in North and South Waziristan, 16 in Kurram, one in the Khyber Tribal Area, six in Bajaur and Lower Dir, and three in Chitral. Hassan added that five sites had been marked out in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. However, he expressed concern over the water situation in the province, which has been subjected to an ongoing severe drought.

UNHCR also called on Afghanistan's neighbouring states to work with them to identify and develop more suitable, safe and adequate sites than those offered so far. "UNHCR fears that if additional safe and adequate sites are not offered, identified and made ready quickly, it would not be prepared for a large influx - despite the financial and other resources now beginning to flow from the donors," Hassan said.

Last week local people in a Tribal Area in the NWFP blocked a bulldozer heading out to start work on clearing a site marked out for a refugee camp. This happened at the Malkano site in the Khyber Tribal Area, 20 km from Peshawar; local people there have voiced concern about having a camp in their area.

UNHCR has said shelter is already being positioned. A convoy of seven trucks is on its way to Peshawar carrying some 2,700 tents, as part of the 40,000 tents from Pakistani suppliers, and is expected to arrive soon. A similar operation is taking place in Baluchistan, which borders on the southeastern Afghan province of Kandahar.

In the provincial capital, Quetta, 660 tents have been brought in, which will be followed by another 800. In addition to this, an extra 1,000 tents will be delivered to Quetta on a daily basis, according to UNHCR.