Aid agencies speed up relief work

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 6. With snowfall being reported in parts of Afghanistan, the United Nations aid agencies and their partners are racing to provide food and other relief supplies to people in desperate need of assistance.

The U.N. officials said the estimates of vulnerable population within Afghanistan may vary between 5 to 7.5 million. The international aid agencies have been appealing to the U.S.- led allies and the Taliban to halt the war to enable food supplies to be reached to the interior parts of the country.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is working hard to pre- position food in areas that will be cut off by snow in a couple of weeks, the agency spokesperson, Ms. Lindsey Davies, told reporters here.

With a metre of snowfall reported in the Anjuman Pass leading to the Panshir Valley, ``trucks are still able to operate, but the fear is that with worsening conditions, the window of time for them to operate unimpeded is closing,'' she said.

For the first time, the agency has hired a so-called ``harsh environment'' expert from Canada to help establish a logistics base camp near the tip of the Anjuman Pass to keep it open as long as possible.

Among other efforts, the WFP has dispatched 55 trucks carrying some 550 tonnes of food to northeast Afghanistan and the Panshir Valley. Plans are underway to airdrop food to areas affected by the snowfall. The dropped packages are snow-proof and coloured black so that they could be easily seen.

Meanwhile, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it has received unconfirmed reports from the Iranian Red Crescent Society that some 3,000 Afghans are living in the open near the Makaki camp on the Afghan side of the border in Nimroz province.

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Section  : International
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