(dpa) - Three months after a UN appeal for more than 80 million dollars in aid to help those affected by the rise in food prices, the World Food Programme has started providing emergency food assistance to millions of needy Afghans, a statement said Friday.
Due to the surge in the price of wheat, which has risen by 70 per cent over the past year, thousands of people were facing food shortage in Afghanistan while some families in Northern Takhar and Kunduz provinces sold their babies due to extreme poverty and hunger.
"Between now and mid-year, WFP aims to reach 2.5 million people in both urban and rural areas of Afghanistan," the statement quoted the WFP country director Rick Corsino as saying.
The agency will begin distribution this week, including wheat to 650,000 people in and around the capital Kabul, it added.
So far the WFP has received pledges for two-thirds of the 77 million dollars it requested as part of the joint appeal to deliver 89,000 tons of food to the poorest Afghans, said Corsino, adding, "We must take immediate action to reduce the impact of soaring food prices on poor people in Afghanistan."
"Distributions will be completed before the main mid-year wheat harvest as we do not want this additional food to discourage Afghan farmers from growing wheat for domestic markets and needs," it added.