U.S. Donates Food Aid for Afghan Refugees in Pakistan

Friday, June 22, 2001 7:06 AM EST

ISLAMABAD, Jun 22, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The World Food Program (WFP) Friday received a U.S. donation of 3,500 tons of wheat to help feed 65,000 newly-arriving Afghan refugees in camps near Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province, according to a WFP press release.

The wheat, which arrived in Karachi Thursday night, and, 500 tons of vegetable oil that the U.S. sent to the WFP in May, are worth nearly over 1.9 million U.S. dollars.

This year the U.S. also pledged 1,000 tons of pulses worth over 400,000 dollars to the WFP's emergency operation to assist refugees who fled the drought and the civil war in Afghanistan.

According to the press release, around 85 percent of Afghanistan's estimated 21.9 million people are directly dependent on agriculture and three successive years of drought have made one million people leave their homes in search of food. Many have been forced to move to avoid the conflict raging between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.

The WFP is currently providing food to about 3.8 million people in Afghanistan -- more than three times the number it was assisting only a year ago, said the press release.