Desperately needed food aid was flooding into Afghanistan today, as humanitarian agencies raced against time to boost warehouse stocks before the onset of hostilities and winter.
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Afghan refugees from Erat
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UN World Food Programme (WFP) officials said convoys were rolling into the country from Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan with nearly 1,500 tonnes of wheat for an estimated eight million Afghans in need of emergency help.
The largest convoy of 20 trucks carrying 500 tonnes of wheat went through a border crossing near the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning. Another convoy of 500 tonnes was scheduled to cross the frontier on Wednesday.
A further 100 tonnes entered northwestern Afghanistan this morning from Turkmenistan, with a larger 300-tonne convoy scheduled to follow tomorrow.
In Tajikistan, 18 trucks carrying nearly 200 tonnes of wheat began an arduous three-day journey to the northeastern Afghan city of Faizabad.
"We want to get in as much aid as possible over the next six weeks before the winter makes movement impossible or, at best, extremely difficult," WFP spokesman Mr Khaled Mansour said.
The huge humanitarian operation shifted into high gear after an experimental six-truck convoy arrived safely in Kabul yesterday.
All aid shipments were stopped, and foreign aid workers pulled out of Afghanistan after the September 11th suicide aircraft attacks in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania.
AFP