ISLAMABAD - The United Nations World Food Programme today announced that it has delivered an unprecedented 116,000 metric tons of food into Afghanistan during December. This is more than twice the quantity of food delivered by WFP last month bringing the total amount of food dispatched into Afghanistan since October to some 200,000 metric tons.

This record level was reached against a backdrop of extraordinary security problems, treacherous roads and snowed-in communities. The food was delivered by barge, truck and plane from Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“This success is due to the dedication of the WFP logistics staff in the region who have been working around the clock to make sure we pre-position enough food in Afghanistan before the winter sets in” said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, Special Envoy of WFP’s Executive Director for the Afghan crisis.

“But credit must also go to our national staff and NGO partners who have been present on the ground, working under very difficult conditions. Without their commitment we could not have reached this level”.

Lopes da Silva also thanked donors for their timely response to WFP’s funding appeals for the Afghanistan operation as well as the neighbouring countries for supporting the relief efforts.

“This was a concerted effort to make sure there was enough food inside the country” said Lopes da Silva “now we will scale deliveries back to 40-50,000 metric tons a month and focus on the nutritional situation of those weakened by three years of drought”.

Many of these drought-affected people live in areas such as the central highlands and the north-eastern province of Badakshan that are already cut off by winter snows and WFP remains very concerned that there are still pockets of hungry people there.

WFP has specialised snow teams from Canada and Sweden positioned in these areas and is working to keep roads open using all weather trucks, some of which are fitted with special snow clearing equipment. WFP is also working to deploy helicopters in case they are needed to do rapid assessments to determine priority areas for food distributions during the peak winter months.

WFP and its NGO partners currently provide food for six million Afghans suffering from the effects of war as well as three years of crippling drought. The WFP operation for the Afghan Regional Emergency is valued at US$257 million makes provision for 7.5 million people in Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries for six months.

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