100 Feared Dead from Starvation in Afghan Central Region
May 2, 1998 - 0:0
ISLAMABAD - About 100 people, mostly women and children, are feared to have died of starvation in central Afghanistan's Hazarat region isolated by a Taleban blockade, the UN Food Agency said Friday. Tens of thousands face starvation in Hazarajat, home to some 1.2 million people living in mountain-clinging villages, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement. The region includes Bamiyan Province and parts of Ghor, Wardak, Uruzogon and Ghazni Provinces. It has been isolated to the south, west and east by a blockade imposed by the Taleban last year.
The route from the north, which is controlled by anti-Taleban forces, has been unsafe for food convoys due to factional fighting and danger of looting and other risks. The Taleban, who control much of the rest of Afghanistan, have not allowed food supplies to the opposition-held Hazarajat because they claim these feed the troops of their enemies. WFP missions scouring the region have reported pockets of severe hunger, dwindling food supplies, empty marketplaces and as many as 100 unconfirmed deaths by starvation, mostly of women and children, the agency said.
The toll includes 45 reported dead in Uruzgon, where some 3,000 families will be running out of food in a matter of days, it added. The WFP warning on the worsening food situation came as the Taleban and the northern alliance broke off talks in Islamabad on Thursday for two days amid a deadlock over the opposition demand for lifting the blockade.
The Taleban delegation has returned home for consultations with the leadership and the talks will be resumed on Sunday, a conference spokesman said. The WFP said convoys with food from its northern food warehouse would be sent to Bamiyan when the routes were considered safe, but warned such aid would be insufficient. Only a political decision to lift the Taleban blockade can help overcome the crisis, enabling the wfp to rush food convoys from its better-stocked storehouses in neighboring Pakistan, the agency said.
(AFP)
The route from the north, which is controlled by anti-Taleban forces, has been unsafe for food convoys due to factional fighting and danger of looting and other risks. The Taleban, who control much of the rest of Afghanistan, have not allowed food supplies to the opposition-held Hazarajat because they claim these feed the troops of their enemies. WFP missions scouring the region have reported pockets of severe hunger, dwindling food supplies, empty marketplaces and as many as 100 unconfirmed deaths by starvation, mostly of women and children, the agency said.
The toll includes 45 reported dead in Uruzgon, where some 3,000 families will be running out of food in a matter of days, it added. The WFP warning on the worsening food situation came as the Taleban and the northern alliance broke off talks in Islamabad on Thursday for two days amid a deadlock over the opposition demand for lifting the blockade.
The Taleban delegation has returned home for consultations with the leadership and the talks will be resumed on Sunday, a conference spokesman said. The WFP said convoys with food from its northern food warehouse would be sent to Bamiyan when the routes were considered safe, but warned such aid would be insufficient. Only a political decision to lift the Taleban blockade can help overcome the crisis, enabling the wfp to rush food convoys from its better-stocked storehouses in neighboring Pakistan, the agency said.
(AFP)