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Afghanistan: UN aid workers assess reports of food shortages in remote area

Afghanistan: UN aid workers assess reports of food shortages in remote area

Responding to media reports about acute food shortages in Afghanistan's Zarah District, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced that two of its staff members had travelled to the area to begin addressing the situation.

WFP spokesperson Wagdi Othman told reporters in Islamabad that the area had been hard-hit by three years of drought and its close proximity to front-line fighting. "It takes four hours to reach Zarah by car and then another eight hours by donkey to reach the village itself," Othman said, welcoming media reports that called attention to looming starvation among villagers in Bonawash.

On 5 January, WFP had confirmation that 1,400 metric tonnes of food had reached Zarah district - enough to feed more than 150,000 people for one month. Distribution began the following day.

The agency plans to use helicopters to conduct rapid assessments of remote areas in Afghanistan towards the end of January when winter conditions are at their most severe. WFP will also use those aircraft to "respond to acute food needs with small amounts of emergency supplies to relieve the most immediate requirements while long-term arrangements are made," said the spokesperson.