The World Food Programme has recently announced that the transfer of food aid to Afghanistan has become a complex and multi-layered operation due to regional instability, border closures, and lengthy routes spanning several thousand kilometers.
In a report, the organization stated that hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan are facing hunger and severe poverty.
The report highlighted that this situation has been exacerbated by natural disasters, reduced humanitarian aid budgets, and regional restrictions.
The World Food Programme further noted that one food aid shipment, which included hundreds of tons of food from Indonesia for Afghan students, was initially transported by sea to Pakistan. However, after the borders were closed, its route changed multiple times.
The organization emphasized that this shipment was then transferred to Dubai and subsequently rerouted through several countries in the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia—a route that added over 8,000 kilometers to the original path.
It continued to mention that aid convoys faced long delays, security checks, and customs procedures at seven borders during this operation but ultimately succeeded in delivering aid to Kabul and then to various provinces of Afghanistan.
Additionally, the World Food Programme warned in part of its report that for many children in Afghanistan, the enriched biscuits distributed in schools are often their only meal of the day.
The report stressed that despite all obstacles, the process of delivering aid continues, quoting a statement from an official of the organization: “Hunger does not wait for borders to open.”
According to statistics from the World Food Programme, currently more than 17 million citizens of Afghanistan are facing severe food insecurity, and nearly five million women and children under five years old are suffering from severe malnutrition.
