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Afghanistan: UN food agency presses on with deliveries to prevent hunger in winter

Afghanistan: UN food agency presses on with deliveries to prevent hunger in winter

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is pressing ahead with food deliveries to Afghanistan, where the coming winter is expected to complicate relief efforts in the war-devastated and drought-stricken country, a WFP spokesman said today.

"Within the first six days of November, WFP has been able to send more than 15,000 tonnes of food into Afghanistan," spokesman Khaled Mansour told reporters in Islamabad. "We are more hopeful every day that we can reach our target of bringing in 52,000 tonnes per month into this country."

He said that last month, the agency had delivered over 3,000 tonnes of food for some 300,000 internally displaced persons living in camps in the drought-plagued western region of Afghanistan. Since the beginning of November, WFP has sent about 6,000 tonnes of food to the western province of Herat from Quetta, Pakistan. "This is a third of the monthly needs of the western region," Mr. Mansour explained.

While expressing optimism that WFP would reach its food delivery goals in the western region, the spokesman said numerous difficulties persisted. "Up until 11 September, WFP staff would travel in double convoys with constant radio communication to reduce the risk of attack, but now that radio communication is restricted and some vehicles have been commandeered, it is impossible to operate in these insecure areas," he said.