U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
AFGHANISTAN: Agencies fear more displacement and starvation
29 November 2001


ISLAMABAD, 29 November (IRIN) - Aid agencies have warned of starvation if
food is not delivered immediately to western Afghanistan, where the
uncertain security situation has delayed humanitarian supplies to an
estimated one million people.

"People have exhausted their survival strategies and now there is a
chronic risk of starvation in many parts of western Afghanistan," Hugh
Fenton, a programme manager with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan
Refugees, told IRIN. He added that the Chaghcharan, Javand and Qadis
districts in the western Afghan provinces of Ghowr and Badghis had not
received any food aid for the last five months because of insecurity.

Fenton added that they were seeing increasing numbers of displaced people
from these areas arriving in the city of Herat. The new arrivals feared
starvation in the coming weeks, when the roads leading from Herat east to
Ghowr and Badghis might be blocked by heavy snow. There were already more
than 350,000 displaced people at camps in Herat from all over western
Afghanistan due to drought and fighting.

"Food should be immediately delivered to the people living in inaccessible
areas so that they are not displaced," he said, adding that there were
signs of severe malnutrition in certain districts.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has estimated that more than 180,000 people
in Chaghcharan, 90,000 in Javand, and 59,000 people in Qadis were about to
run out of supplies and were in desperate need of new deliveries. It has
been reported that, according to local faction chiefs, close to 100,000
people from Ghowr and Badghis provinces might try to reach Herat before
winter in order to survive.

In its latest situation report, WFP hoped that it could deliver food to
Herat through land routes from Iran and Turkmenistan. It is already
feeding some 350,000 people, including hot meals for especially vulnerable
mothers and children in six camps for displaced people.

In a recent press statement, another NGO, World Vision, also warned of
starvation in the region, adding that it would not be confined to women
and children. Signs of malnutrition were evident in adults, World Vision
said, indicating the risk of a severe famine. Children were severely
malnourished in the Maslakh camp near Herat, the statement added.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Ismail Khan, a former governor and an
anti-Taliban commander, now again in control of Herat, has appealed for
emergency relief in order to avert "an imminent humanitarian disaster".


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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