India has recently dispatched 47,500 metric tons of wheat and 200 tons of medical aid to Afghanistan amid a worsening hunger crisis.
The aid shipments, which arrived in Herat province through Iran’s Chabahar Port, were made possible by India’s partnership with UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan.
WFP in a post on X on Tuesday thanked the Indian government for their “generous” donation.
“For the first half of this year, 16 million people in Afghanistan received life-saving food from WFP. We are grateful for generous donors like India who make that happen.” The UN agency said.
In July, India dispatched 10,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan which WFP said would help feed vulnerable families suffering from food insecurity. In 2022, at least 40,000 metric tons of wheat were donated to the country.
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan is facing “unprecedented levels” of food insecurity and malnutrition, among other things.
The WFP has said that its food assistance has helped 15.3 million people who are believed to be acutely food-insecure since the beginning of this year, including 2.8 million people in need of emergency assistance.
However, 8 million people were cut from the emergency food assistance program since April due to funding shortfalls.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) requires $3.23 billion for this year to provide essential multi-sectoral assistance to over 20 million people in Afghanistan, but it has only received $744 million so far, which is 23% of the total.
