Food Stolen from Relief Trucks in Afghanistan

(Security remains a serious problem for humanitarian groups) (760)

Unidentified gunmen robbed two trucks in Afghanistan of 40 tons of
food aid, according to an announcement by the World Food Program (WFP)
January 17.

The attackers beat the truck drivers in the January 15 incident, which
occurred in northern Afghanistan. The trucks were transporting the
food to Baglan province, one of those regions most severely affected
by drought and in need of food aid, said WFP spokesperson Khaled
Mansour in an Islamabad press briefing. Some of the seized commodities
were distributed to civilians and some ended up at a military base, he
said.

"There is no justification whatsoever for forcibly taking food aid
even if it ends up with civilians," Mansour said. He said local
authorities are investigating the robbery.

The WFP spokesman said the incident underscores the fact that security
remains a serious impediment to the humanitarian efforts in
Afghanistan, even though the Taliban has been deposed and an interim
administration is in place.

Following is an excerpt of the text of the U.N. Press briefing in
Islamabad:

(begin excerpt)

UNITED NATIONS PRESS BRIEFING

17 January 2002

Islamabad, Pakistan 

PRESS BRIEFING BY THE U.N. OFFICES FOR PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN 

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing at the
United Nations Information Center in Islamabad by the United Nations
offices for Pakistan and Afghanistan (excluding question and answer
session). . . .

Khaled Mansour, Spokesperson for the World Food Program 

Two WFP trucks carrying 20 tons of wheat each were stopped at gunpoint
and the food stolen by armed gunmen in Aibak city in north Afghanistan
on Tuesday.

A group of armed people stopped the Afghan drivers of the two
commercial trucks, beat them and took one truck to a downtown street
in Aibak and distributed the food to the people in this area. The
second truck has been reportedly taken to a military unit nearby. The
drivers are shaken but in good condition and they are now in
Mazar-i-Sharif. Later the two trucks were released to the transporter-
empty.

WFP has approached officials from the Afghan interim government in
Mazar-i-Sharif and requested their good offices in having all the food
returned and making sure this incident does not take place again. They
promised to help investigate the incident and return the food.

There is no justification whatsoever for forcibly taking food aid even
if it ends up with civilians.

WFP, which is helping six million Afghans in this war and
drought-stricken country, is targeting those civilians who would
starve without food aid.

The two trucks were loaded in Turkmenistan earlier this week and the
food was part of our assistance plan for more than 18,000 people who
are severely affected by the drought in Baghlan province. Baghlan and
other provinces in the north are part of the hunger belt where more
than three million people, whose rain fed crops have failed for three
years in a row, are dependent on food aid.

This incident highlights one of the major challenges that WFP is still
facing in Afghanistan: insecurity. Insecurity varies from one region
to another and changes on weekly basis, but -- in short -- it is one
of the main concerns and impediments to our work in Afghanistan.

In Herat, today was the last day of the allocation of tokens for the
citywide food distribution. On Saturday, the distribution will end
having covered about 53,000 families with a total of 2,641 MT of food.

The distribution in Herat is part of WFP effort to help the urban
population of Afghanistan recover from the recent war impact. Herat is
the second city to benefit from such a distribution after Kabul.
Meanwhile, our focus remains on the rural population and the displaced
people in Afghanistan who will continue to receive food aid on regular
basis.

The Afghan female surveyors carried out their work for 11 days without
a problem though from time to time they have been obstructed in the
streets by people demanding to have food tokens. The tokens covered
the poorest 80 percent of the city population.

The surveyors, 250 women in total, are to be paid tomorrow. Each will
receive about 33 dollars, three dollars a day. Several female
surveyors said that they were planning to buy clothes for their
children and oil and rice for their families with the money.

(end excerpt)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)