Pakistan sends first batch of relief goods to flood-hit Afghanistan

The first batch of food assistance announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the flood-affected people of Afghanistan reached the neighbouring nation on Saturday, his office said.

The aid was delivered through a special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) aircraft.

“At the directive of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan today dispatched first C-130 to Afghanistan containing relief assistance in tents, food items and medicines for the people affected by recent flash floods,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan tweeted.

These items included 100 tents, two tonnes of wheat, one tonne of rice and 450 kilogrammes of sugar, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a press release.

Sharif said that Pakistan would extend all possible support to the flood-hit Afghanistan.

Ambassador Khan said another plane carrying more relief goods was likely to be sent to Afghanistan in the coming days. Sharif had announced the assistance for the neighbouring nation on Thursday.

The second tranche of relief support will be sent on May 9, the PMO announced. Heavy rain and flooding has killed 29 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged crops in Afghanistan, which is already facing a humanitarian crisis.

The Taliban government, struggling to cope with the disaster that has affected more than a third of its provinces, will approach international relief organisations for help, officials said. “Due to flooding and storms in 12 provinces, 22 people have died and 40 injured,” said Hassibullah Shekhani, head of communications and information at Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.

The rain and flooding was particularly severe in the western provinces of Badghis and Faryab and the northern province of Baghlan.

Afghanistan has been suffering from drought in recent years, made worse by climate change, with low crop yields raising fears of serious food shortages. The weather has exacerbated problems of poverty caused by decades of war and then a drop in foreign aid and the freezing of assets abroad after the Taliban took over, and Us-led forces withdrew, in August.

Shekhani said 500 houses were destroyed, 2,000 damaged, 300 head of livestock killed and some 3,000 acres of crops damaged.

He said the International Committee of the Red Cross was helping and officials would approach other international organisations for help.

The international community is grappling with how to help the country of some 40 million people without benefiting the Taliban.