More than one million people have been suffering from food shortage and price hike in the war-ravaged Afghanistan, the UN food agency said Monday.
"As many as 1.3 million Afghans, who before were considered borderline at risk of food security, now because of the large price increase, may have been push into high-risk food insecurity," Rick Corsino, head of World Food Program (WFP) Afghan mission, warned at a press conference.
He said these ill-fated people are confined in rural areas of the country.
The continued soaring of the prices of basic needs in Afghanistan which is largely dependent on international assistance have added to the problems of the war-weary people.
Basic accommodation particularly the prices of kitchen items including flour, rice, cooking oil, wheat and so on are skyrocketing and in some cases beyond the reach of common people.
In the capital city Kabul, the price of a piece of local-made plain bread rose to 12 Afghanis (about 0.24 U.S. dollar) this winter, up from six Afghanis last year.
"What we conclude is that assistance for this group of people is justified," Corsino stressed.
An additional 40,000 tons of food worth 30 million U.S. dollars, he added, is needed by WFP to assist those needy people this year who have come under stress because of food prices increase.
The WFP along with Afghan government would appeal to international community for assistance next week, the U.N. official said.
In 2007, the WFP had distributed 220,000 tons of food to the Afghans while this year it would distribute 175,000 tons, according to U.N. officials.
Afghanistan in 2007 had produced 90 percent of its wheat and just needs to import 600,000 tons of the grain, which indicates improvement in agricultural product, they say.
Militancy-related violence left over 6,000 people dead in Afghanistan in 2007, the bloodiest year since the Taliban regime were toppled six years ago.
Spiraling insurgency across the Central Asian country, especially in its southern provinces, has challenged humanitarian support efforts of international aid agencies in some troubled regions.
Attacks on food transporting vehicles of international relief bodies were common in Afghanistan's lawless remote areas.
Source:Xinhua
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