WFP AFGHAN EMERGENCY OPERATION: REGIONAL OVERVIEW

November 5, 2001 - With an estimated six million people expected to require food aid inside Afghanistan this winter and a potential 1.5 million refugees likely to seek shelter in neighbouring countries, WFP has developed a new relief strategy for the region.

Pre-existing operations assisting Afghan refugees in Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan as well as millions of hungry people inside Afghanistan itself have been consolidated into a single all-encompassing regional appeal.

The following reports show how WFP is working in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Pakistan to avert a humanitarian crisis that threatens to engulf an entire region.

Afghanistan
Tajikistan
Iran
Pakistan

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INSIDE AFGHANISTAN

WFP has accelerated its overland deliveries into Afghanistan as it aims to deliver 52,000 metric tonnes of food aid by November to an estimated six million Afghans who run the risk of starvation over the next six months

The Agency is now sending truck convoys rolling into Afghanistan along a series of humanitarian aid corridors that start in Iran, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.

With daily truck deliveries rising from an average of 200 tonnes to 900, the Agency estimates that from October 9-16, it transported more than 5,000 tonnes of food - enough to feed 1.5 million people.

RACING AGAINST TIME

However, with the mountainous northern provinces usually cut off by snow for up to five months from mid-November, WFP is racing against time to buffer its stocks ahead of a harsh winter.

Without prepositioned food stocks to draw on, the Agency believes some two million people in the mountain passes of central Afghanistan and the Panjsher Valley could run out of food by December.

WFP is looking into the possibility of airdropping up to 5,000 tonnes of food aid per month to the exposed areas, home to some of the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan's seemingly never-ending cycle of drought and war.

Despite increasingly difficult conditions, WFP continues to distribute food aid inside Afghanistan through its local staff and local NGO workers, reaching both urban areas and remote rural villages:

• Kabul: the Afghan capital remains WFP's main distribution centre for sending food aid to the Central Highlands and neighbouring provinces.
  
  It also hosts some 157 WFP-sponsored bakeries. WFP has distributed enough dry rations to the 350,000 people who receive assistance through the bakeries to last until the end of October.
  
  
• Hazarajat: in the second week of October, WFP sent 250 tonnes of food aid to Oxfam in Hazarajat, one of the worst affected provinces in the Central Highland region, where some 100,000 families are dependent on food aid.
  
  
• Herat: WFP food distribution continues to some 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps around Herat in western Afghanistan.
  
  The Agency is working closely with local non-governmental organisation Hewad Reconstruction Agency in six camps. Each family receives a 65 kilo ration (50 kilos of rice and 15 kilos of split peas).
  
  
• Northern Provinces: some 400,000 Afghans are totally dependent on WFP food for survival in Faryab and Balkh. Working closely with Save the Children, a US NGO, WFP hoped to deliver some 2,800 tonnes of food to these two provinces by October 20.
  
  
• Faisabad: WFP food reaches some 100,000 Afghan IDPs at Faisabad, working through NGOs ACTED and Concern. Last week, food aid was delivered to some 2,000 families spread across four districts.
  
  The Agency also runs school feeding programmes here benefiting some 25,000 children and teachers.
  

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TAJIKISTAN

Tajikistan one of the poorest of the ex-Soviet Republics and still struggling with the legacy of a five-year civil war and economic hardships, suffered its worst drought in 75 years in 2000.

A year on and the drought shows no sign of easing: cereal output for 2001 has dipped 36 percent below the past five year average leaving a cereal deficit of 341,000 tonnes.

The crippling drought that has left millions of Afghans dependent on WFP food aid has also devastated food security in the neighbouring country of Tajikistan. This week WFP appealed for urgent food aid for one million Tajiks
WFP Press Release, October 16 2001

"A gap of this magnitude, if unmet, will have a dramatic impact on one million Tajiks who live in remote and mountainous areas," said Ardag Meghdessian, WFP Tajikistan country director.

"The spectre of famine looms for many of these people who have already depleted their meagre savings and have virtually no employment opportunities. We have to help them to survive the harsh winter."

On October 16, WFP made an urgent appeal for 67,000 metric tonnes of food aid - enough to cover the needs of one million drought-hit Tajiks from January-June 2002.

WFP officials fear that the humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Afghanistan is overshadowing the plight of the hungry in one of the poorest ex-Soviet Republics.

"We are hoping that the generosity of the donor community towards the drought victims in Afghanistan will extend further north and help the hungry poor in Tajikistan who are suffering from the same drought," said Meghdessian.

REFUGEES

Situated on the northern border of Afghanistan, Tajikistan is also a potential haven for Afghan refugees fleeing fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban.

As part of the United Nations inter-agency appeal, WFP's country office has drawn up contingency plans to deal with a possible 50,000 refugees seeking shelter at the borders with Khatlon and Gorno-Badakhshan.

WFP is also monitoring the situation of Afghan refugees already sheltering on the Pyanji islands on the Afghan-Tajikistan border.

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IRAN

In Iran, WFP is working on the ground for two main scenarios:

• Getting food into western Afghanistan which currently hosts 200,000 IDPs
  
  
• Getting food aid ready for an estimated 400,000 refugees in the event of a major exodus

From October 6-16, more than 210 tonnes of WFP flour were transited through Iran and across the western Afghan border to Herat and the surrounding region. WFP estimates that some 1.2 million people are vulnerable to food shortages in this area.

The Agency also plans to use its Iranian humanitarian corridor to send food aid to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif; this region is expected to host a vulnerable population of two million hungry Afghans.

"Initially we are trying to send in 30,000 tonnes over the first two months but this will be further increased" said Marius de Gaay Fortman, WFP country representative for Iran.

MASHHAD LOGISTICS BASE

Given the growing significance of its food deliveries out of Iran, WFP is enhancing its logistical base in the north eastern city of Mashhad with eight additional staff members due to join the Agency's team there.

Food aid destined for Herat is currently being transferred on to trucks at Mashhad before crossing the border near the Iranian town of Dogharun.

Although the expected wave of Afghan refugees fleeing military action has not materialised to date, the Agency is ready to work with implementing partners on the ground to get food to refugees should a major exodus occur.

Contingency plans predict that some 400,000 Afghans may enter through four main border crossing points and seek refuge in Khorassan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces. Iran proposes locating camps on Afghan side of border with WFP providing basic food items.

Since July 1999, WFP has already been providing food aid for some 136,000 Afghan refugees seeking shelter in Iran from drought and conflict.

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PAKISTAN

WFP is working in Pakistan both to get food into Afghanistan and to work with implementing partners on the ground to get food to refugees should a major exodus occur:

• WFP's food shipments arrive at Karachi in the south; commodities are then dispatched to warehouses at Peshawar in North West Province and Quetta in Baluchistan from where WFP food convoys are sent into Afghanistan.
  
  
• WFP food aid is already feeding some 117,000 Afghan refugees sheltering inside Pakistan in pre-existing camps situated near Quetta and Peshawar.
  
  These people had fled their country's vicious cycle of drought and conflict before the latest developments in the Afghan crisis threatened to push a fresh wave of refugees in Pakistan.

With the UN's inter-agency appeal making provision for a possible one million Afghan refugees in Pakistan over the next six months, the Pakistani government has identified potential camps along the border of the North West Frontier Province (700,000) and in Baluchistan (300,000).

WFP is ready to provide food for basic needs and hi-energy biscuits.