Yeru
Where do you get the idea that all these Afghanis aren't getting food?
What I'm trying to say is the aid required before the onset of winter is just not getting in. This has been the case since s11.
check it out:
"Because of these threats, aid organisations have been forced to pull out their foreign workers - fearing both that they may be caught in the expected raids, or that they would be attacked as westerners after the NATO bombers have flown away. The effects of this withdrawal could be infinitely more tragic and devastating than the worst that a wounded America may now throw at this long, long-suffering country.
For, although it has gone largely unreported, Afghanistan is in the grip of a three-year drought and on the verge of mass starvation. According to the UN-run World Food Programme, by the end of the year 5.5 million people [the UN estimate is now 7 million] will be entirely dependent on food aid to survive the winter - that's a quarter of the Afghan population.
As Christian Aid's programme officer responsible for Afghanistan, I have been helping supply food and seeds to communities in desperate need. In a few weeks the winter snows will come, cutting off the hundreds of isolated villages whose only links to the outside world are rutted dirt tracks. Without seeds they will be unable to replant for next year. Without food aid now, thousands could be dead before the spring."
Chris Buckley, Christian Aid Programme Officer for Afghanistan
14/9
Afghanistan is the poorest country in Asia. Even before the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September, it faced a winter of severe food shortages, leaving five million people at risk. This was caused by a combination of three years of successively worsening drought, and the continuing war between the Taliban and opposition United Front, based in the north.
Food distribution vital before the winter sets in
The situation has already been compounded since 11 September by the flight of unknown numbers of Afghans towards the closed Pakistani border and elsewhere, and by the suspension of UN World Food Program (WFP) food entering the country. This threatens a collapse in the local distribution of food before winter closes in, and consequently the likelihood of widespread starvation. The vital need to reach people by November cannot be overstated.
OXFAM (credible ngo)
"What is needed is large scale convoys of basic foodstuffs, rather than single meals designed for soldiers. Until yesterday the UN and aid agencies such as ourselves were still able to get some food convoys into Afghanistan. Due to the airstrikes the UN have stopped all convoys, and we will find delivering aid also much more difficult."
The international medical aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)oct8
"It's very hard to get convoys of food in when there's a military offensive going on"
"I do not want to see a civilian population in Afghanistan as innocent victims of what happened on s11"
Also called for the cessation of bombing
Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights commissioner 14/10
"The only way of getting the food aid a month through is by truck. Yet most drivers will simply not venture on to the roads under threat of violence from the Taliban, the opposition or US strike aircraft.
Quite simply, the bombing must stop as soon as possible, and the international community, under the auspices of the UN, must launch a huge and credible aid effort within days, not weeks guaranteeing the safe passage of convoys.
If this is not done before the winter snows come, thousands even hundreds of thousands will certainly die. If this happens, then the "civilised" Western powers who have put so much store by humanitarian values will be culpable. A curious way, indeed, of winning Afghan hearts and minds."
Dominic Nutt, emergencies officer for Christian Aid
"Christian Aid continues to call for a pause in the bombing to allow essential humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Afghans in need."
Christian aid 23/10
"Only a quarter of the food needed is reaching Afghanistan: and less than one fifth can be distributed "
Christian aid 24/10
