India ships 2,500 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan amid economic crisis
A convoy of 50 trucks bearing the colors of the Indian flag has just entered Pakistan to deliver 2,500 tonnes of wheat to the UN World Food Program, located in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
REUTERS - STRINGER
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In Afghanistan, the population continues to suffer the effects of the humanitarian crisis: most of the government's public funds were frozen after the Taliban took power.
Afghans lack everything from medicine to food.
To come to their aid, India has just sent a shipment of 2,500 tons of wheat, by land, through the roads of its sworn enemy, Pakistan.
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With our correspondent in New Delhi
,
Sébastien Farcis
A convoy of 50 trucks bearing the colors of the Indian flag has just entered Pakistan, in order to deliver 2,500 tonnes of wheat to the UN World Food Program
,
located in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
According to the Afghan ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay, it is one of the largest food aid offers by a country since the humanitarian crisis caused by the war and
the takeover of the Taliban
.
Trucks from India are usually banned in Pakistan, but Islamabad exceptionally allowed the crossing of this humanitarian convoy at the end of November, six weeks after the request of its
Indian enemy brother
.
A critical humanitarian situation in Afghanistan
For about a year, India, which had a close relationship with the previous Western-backed Afghan government, has also donated 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and 13 tons of medicine and clothing. 'winter.
Afghanistan has hardly any money in reserve since the return of the Taliban to power and the sudden halt in August of international aid, which financed nearly 80% of the Afghan budget, as well as the freezing by the States US $9.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank assets.
Afghanistan is plunged into
a major economic crisis
threatening the population with famine.
The United Nations spoke of a " critical
" humanitarian situation
with the majority of the 28 million inhabitants in need.
More than four & half months of wait, the first convoy of 50 trucks will start the delivery of 50,000 metric tons of wheat from 🇮🇳 to 🇦🇫 today.
I thank the Indian government for the generosity displayed at a time when more than 20million Afghans are facing crisis or the worse 1/2 pic.twitter.com/qjSynbG20q
— Farid Mamundzay (@FMamundzay) February 22, 2022
►
To read: Afghanistan: founding act of an international rupture?
(and with
AFP
)
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