The UN is set to issue an unprecedented appeal to the US and its coalition allies to halt the war in Afghanistan and allow time for a huge relief operation.
UN sources in Pakistan said growing concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country -- in part, they say, caused by the relentless bombing campaign -- has forced them to take the radical step. Aid officials estimate that up to 7.5 million Afghans might be threatened with starvation.
"The situation is completely untenable inside Afghanistan. We really need to get our point across here and have to be very bold in doing it. Unless the [US air] strikes stop, there will be a huge number of deaths," one UN source said.
The move will embarrass Clare Short, Britain's International Development Secretary, who said last week that there was no "cause and effect" between the bombing and the ability of aid agencies to deliver much-needed food and shelter.
Aid workers yesterday strongly rejected Short's statements. "Basically the bombing makes it difficult to get enough supplies in. It is as simple as that," an Islamabad-based aid official said.
Dominic Nutt, a spokesman for the British charity Christian Aid, called Short's remarks sickening. "Needy people are being put at risk by government spin-doctors who are showing a callous disregard for life," he said. "To say that there is no link is not just misleading but profoundly dangerous." Christian Aid reports 600 people have already died in the Dar-e-Suf region of northern Afghanistan due to starvation, malnutrition and disease.
Other agencies confirmed that the sick, the young and the old are already dying in refugee camps around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
The World Food Program has calculated that 52,000 tonnes of wheat must be distributed in Afghanistan each month to stave off mass starvation. Since the aid program was restarted -- on Sept. 25 -- only 20,000 tonnes have been supplied and 15,000 distributed. The concern is that the coming winter will make relief efforts more difficult. The first snows have already fallen on the Hindu Kush mountains and the isolated highlands of Hazarajat.
But though the World Food Program is accelerating the supply of food, it says it is unlikely to be able to bring in more than two-thirds of what is required. And it is clear that little aid is reaching the most remote areas where the need is greatest.
A new assessment by aid workers on the ground in Afghanistan will be presented to UN coordinators in Islamabad this week. It shows that the effects of the three-year drought that has hit Afghanistan are far worse than previously thought. Areas in the north-east are of particular concern.
In the western city of Herat, food deliveries are barely keeping up with demand from the 1,000 people a day who are arriving at refugee camps.
"We are getting a significant amount of food into the country and we are desperately trying to get it to more remote areas. The usual distribution networks are hugely disrupted. At the moment a trickle is getting through," said Michael Huggins, a spokesman for the World Food Program.
He said the UN agency's operation was hampered by a lack of truck drivers willing to carry food through Afghanistan because of the bombing raids, high fuel prices and communication difficulties.
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