ISLAMABAD: The World Food Programme (WFP) has expanded its emergency food assistance for Afghanistan through Pakistan, the UN agency said on Wednesday.
Pakistan is supporting WFP operations to address critical food shortages in Afghanistan as the country faces a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis.
WFP and other humanitarian organizations rely on the efficient clearance and movement of shipments to Afghanistan through the Karachi port and onwards through the Chaman and Torkham border crossing.
The Pakistani government is also facilitating UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) operations between Islamabad and Kabul.
“WFP is rapidly expanding its operations of emergency food assistance to Afghanistan. Approx. 13,000 MT [metric ton]of wheat flour is being unloaded from Karachi port for immediate trucking toward the Torkham border, as part of WFP’s relief for the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan,” WFP said.
Last week, the World Food Programme called for more funds as children face “hunger and starvation” in Afghanistan.
WFP is in a “race against time” to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, its executive director David Beasley warned in a statement.
“What’s happening in Afghanistan is just horrific,” said Beasley. “I met families with no jobs, no cash and no food, mothers who sold one child to feed another, and the lucky children who made it to the hospital. The world cannot turn its back as the Afghan people starve.”
A total of 22.8 million people, more than half the population of Afghanistan, face acute hunger as temperatures plummet below zero.
WFP said that with more than 682,000 people displaced by drought, the economic crisis and conflict, the World Food Program was calling for $2.6 billion in 2022 to provide life-saving support and work toward long-term resilience.
Next week, Pakistan will host an ‘extraordinary’ meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Afghanistan to ensure a timely humanitarian response for the neighboring country.
