Agency says food is getting through

War on Terrorism: Aid

Fighting is impeding deliveries of food aid to hunger-stricken areas of Afghanistan, but the World Food Programme is now meeting its monthly target to feed the estimated six million people in need.

In a generally upbeat assessment, the executive director of the WFP, Catherine Bertini, said the organisation had dramatically increased aid shipments into Afghanistan in recent weeks, as more lorries had been made available and new routes had opened up from neighbouring countries.

"We're winning the struggle to deliver food into Afghanistan," Ms Bertini said. "We had been facing major challenges over the past weeks in terms of insecurity on the ground and the onset of winter, but we've pulled out all the stops and we're managing to push the large quantities of food needed into Afghanistan."

She said lorries were now able to use land routes from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Pakistan, as well as barge route from Termez in Uzbekistan. The WFP had also airlifted food from its warehouses in Quetta, in Pakistan, to the Central Asian republics to exploit the opening of new routes from the north after the flight of the Taliban from Mazar-i-Sharif

Speaking in London, Ms Bertini said that the WFP had managed to get 52,000 tonnes of food into Afghanistan in the month to 15 November, meeting its target for the first time. The WFP has raised its estimates of the numbers requiring assistance from 3.8 to six million since 11 September.

Last month, the WFP had appealed for US$257m (£180m) to ensure supplies to Afghanistan for six months. So far, it had received about 60 per cent of the total. Ms Bertini said Britain had made £3m available on 12 September, and had just pledged another £3m.