Afghanistan: UN Assistance Only the First Step in Averting Famine

Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 25 August 2000 -- "Our patience in trying to reach the hungry in Dara-e-Suf in Samangan Province has been rewarded, and we have made a successful start in trying to meet the needs of the people there." This was stated by Michael Semple, United Nations Regional Co-ordinator for Hazarajat, Afghanistan, in today's press briefing at the Office of the UN Co-ordinator for Afghanistan in Islamabad.
Semple was referring to the recent 407 metric tonnes of food aid provided by the World Food Programme in an operation that crossed front lines leading into this troubled area, which has been besieged by both drought and conflict between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. The relief operation marks the first time in two years that this route was open to motor traffic.

He stressed that operation faced both political obstacles--removed through negotiations with both sides--and physical impediments, solved through clearing mines along the route. With these obstacles removed, the populations warmly greeted the trucks carrying the relief food aid. "There was joy on that mountainside," Semple said.

Semple emphasised that the assistance will target only about 2,600 families, the most vulnerable 25% of the population, for a period of three months, including the landless and families without labour power. He added that this assistance would indirectly benefit others in the area, also hard hit by drought and conflict, in that it would alleviate their increasing burden of intra-community charity, which they are unable to meet. There will be a need to reach more vulnerable people, and in more areas, he cautioned. "One success is not enough to defeat this widespread problem," he said.

His recent visit to Dara-e-Suf provided convincing proof that the drought in the area was both real and severe. For some people, he said, fetching water from long distances has become a full time occupation. This situation, he said, is expected to worsen as the weather turns colder.

He noted that in normal years, summer is a time of harvest, when people eat well and store up stocks for the winter. This year, however, the harvest in some areas was so poor that people did not even bother to harvest the crops, and some farmers recovered only half of the original seed they had planted.

Semple also conducted spot checks in households, which showed that people are already going hungry and are not baking wheat into bread but stretching it by turning it into thin gruel, which can be spooned in small portions among family members. "The hard times are just beginning," he warned. "People do not know how they are going to survive in coming months."

He noted that the distribution team had weighed children in Dara-e-Suf, where some children have reportedly already died of starvation, and others are severely malnourished.

Given the extent of the drought, he said that it was vitally important for roads to remain open to avert famine in the area and to allow commercial food imports in addition to the food aid made available by the World Food Programme. "Local villagers say the Taliban are stopping commercial food imports, although some is being smuggled in--with great difficulty-- at night on donkeys."

Without continued road access for United Nations assistance, Semple concluded that large-scale displacement would occur and that deaths would increase.

For more information, please contact:

Stephanie Bunker, Public Information Officer and Spokesperson
Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan
92 51 211451 x415; mobile 0320 261325