Red Cross alert on Ghor province

The ICRC on Tuesday warned of malnutrition and increasingly harsh living conditions as a result of the current drought for rural Afghan communities, particularly in the central province of Ghor. Most wells and some springs were dry, the harvest of wheat - the main staple food - was “catastrophic” and some 5 percent to 10 percent of families had already left for cities (mostly the western city of Herat) in search of relief, it said. Some 2,000 newly-displaced families have arrived in Herat since June (mostly from Ghor and Badghis), according to the Office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan. The drought had also taken a huge toll on incomes by ruining crops, killing thousands of livestock, causing a severe drop in livestock prices (as a result of a glut on the market) and resulting in a shortage of wool for women to engage in carpet-weaving - their main source of income, the ICRC stated.