Emergency operation targets 180,000

Within Ghor, Chagcharan district was most affected, with moderate and acute malnutrition cases recorded in almost all villages assessed, according to the ICRC. Peoples’ increasingly frugal diet lacked adequate vitamins, minerals and protein and the severity of the food situation was reflected in the drastic coping mechanism of young boys being sent to remote mountains to catch grasshoppers and gather wild fruits or seeds, the Red Cross stated.

The ICRC said it planned to assist some 20,000 families (or an estimated 160,000 people) in Ghor province, targeting 15,000 families in Chagcharan and 5,000 in Shahrak with food, blankets and/or warm clothing and health services, before the onset of winter in the coming weeks. Most of Ghor province remained under Taliban control and was “calm but tense” at the moment, it said. The main logistical constraints were very poor road conditions and the fact that Chagcharan becomes inaccessible after the first snowfall. The estimated transport time by truck from the ICRC’s logistics centre in Peshawar (northwest Pakistan) and Chagcharan - via Kabul, Kandahar and Herat - is 17 to 18 days.