ISLAMABAD - The World Food Programme
today announced that it will help feed 60,000 newly arrived Afghan refugees
in Pakistan in 2001, more than double the number of refugees it has been
helping only six months ago.
"The WFP has been struggling to
feed more Afghan refugees since late September when renewed fighting in
the northeast of Afghanistan took its toll on a population already suffering
from the worst drought to hit this country in decades," said Mike
Sackett, WFP Regional Manager for West and Central Asia region.
The UN food aid agency is already providing monthly food rations to about 57,000 refugees in two camps near Peshawar, Pakistan, and under this new operation it plans to continue feeding them for up to another 12 months.
"The new operation, which will bring more than 12,000 tons of food to the poorest 60,000 refugees at a total cost of US$ 4.87 million, will help the Government of Pakistan cope with this mounting burden," Jeff Taft-Dick, WFP Deputy Country Director in Pakistan, said.
The renewed fighting in September displaced more than 70,000 civilians in the northeast Takhar Province, sending thousands of refugees into neighbouring Pakistan. According to UNHCR estimates, during October and November up to sixty Afghan families entered Pakistan every day, most of them from the Northern Provinces of Takhar, Baghlan and Parwan.
Fleeing fierce fighting between the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance, most of these families left on foot with whatever they could carry. After having spent up to two weeks on the road, they arrived in Pakistan in a destitute condition with few, if any, belongings and were settled in New Shamshatoo camp near Peshawar. At least 10 percent of the newly arriving families are headed by women and cases of malnutrition among children have already been reported.
WFP has been working hard last year to stabilize the vulnerable drought-hit communities inside Afghanistan to avert a massive migration of people into neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan and Iran. It is currently providing food for over 2.5 million Afghans on a regular basis, more than twice those it was assisting a year ago.
"We plan to distribute more than 20,000 tons of food in Afghanistan a month," WFP Afghanistan Country Director Gerard van Dijk said.
WFP estimates that up to 12 million Afghans, more than half of the total population, are affected by the drought - three to four million severely. The extremely low level of precipitation has destroyed almost all the rain-fed crops putting the estimated cereal deficit for Afghanistan in 2000/2001 at over 2.3 million tons, more than double that of the previous year, itself a record shortfall. Afghanistan needs about 4.1 million tons of cereals a year to meet domestic consumption.
The next harvest is due as early as July 2001, but van Dijk noted that if rains fail again, "we could see a famine."
About 85 percent of Afghanistan's estimated 21.9 million people are directly dependent on agriculture. With their crops ruined by the drought, millions of Afghans will be forced to sell off the last of their livestock to buy food. Purchasing power has already been eroded by mass unemployment, a moribund economy and a 21-year civil war.
It is expected that under the deteriorating conditions faced by households in some of the hardest hit areas many more people will be forced to move in order to survive.
WFP, meanwhile, is striving to continue its regular life-saving activities in Afghanistan, which include the essential bakeries in Kabul and Mazr-I-Sharif that feed over half a million people every day.
WFP has been helping the poor hungry Afghan people since 1964, stopping for four years only in the 1980s. It is committed to continue this assistance provided that it receives enough resources from the donors.
In Pakistan, besides helping Afghan refugees, WFP has been active for more than thirty years supporting various health, educational and environmental projects.
The World Food Programme is the United Nations' front-line agency in the fight against global hunger. In 1999, WFP fed more than 89 million people in 82 countries including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people.
For more information please contact:
Mike Sackett
WFP/Regional Manager and
Pakistan Country Director
Tel. +92-51227-8045
Email: Michael.Sackett@wfp.org
Khaled Mansour
WFP/Information Officer
Tel. +92-51227-1265
Mobil +92-300500989
Email: Khaled.Mansour@wfp.org
For photos please contact:
Sylvia Trulli
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39-06-65132630
Email: Sylvia.Trulli@wfp.org
For video please contact:
Karen Watson-Salvari
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39-06-65132629
Email: Karen.Watson@wfp.org
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