Food gets through to Dar-e-Suf valley

Around 14,000 Afghans trapped by bad weather in Afghanistan's conflict-affected Dar-e-Suf valley, south of Mazar-i-Sharif, have received emergency food rations in an ICRC distribution operation. A convoy of some 800 donkeys each carrying up to 100 kg of supplies, travelled through the valley on a four-day operation in early March to reach the region's 250 remote villages. ICRC described the situation in the valley as "dramatic" with most villages inaccessible due to heavy mining of roads and deep snow cover. "In most of the villages we visited, there was little or no food left. To make matters worse, there was no sign of winter wheat being grown," Reto Stocker, ICRC head in Mazar-i-Sharif said in a statement on Friday. The rations including rice, beans and oil were intended to help families survive until the summer. The Dar-e-Suf valley has been hit hard as a result of ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and a recent severe drought which destroyed the harvest in most of the rain-fed areas.