WFP hails India’s wheat donation to Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): India has donated 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat grains to Afghanistan via the World Food Programme (WFP) in the past 18 months.

WFP wrote on its X handle on Wednesday the donation had enabled it to support more than one million people in 2023 and 4.7 million in 2022.

Keeping in mind the deteriorating situation in that country, India decided to assist Afghan people by supplying humanitarian aid, WFP said.

“In this endeavor, we have supplied several shipments of humanitarian assistance totaling 50,000 metric tons of wheat," said the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

“India has stood by the people of Afghanistan and helped WFP reach hungry families when needs were at record height,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP country director in Afghanistan.

He added WFP could support the most vulnerable people of Afghanistan, because of the lifesaving contributions from its partners like India.”

Recent months have seen a slight improvement in Afghanistan's overall food security situation, largely due to sustained and significant humanitarian food aid, according to the UN agency.

Despite these gains, it said, the circumstances remained extremely dire for one-third of Afghans who did not know where their next meal would come from.

WFP provided emergency food assistance to an estimated 15.7 million food-insecure people, including 7.7 million women and girls, between January and the end of November 2023.

kk/mud