UN Says Famine Averted in Afghanistan
VOA News
29 Jan 2002 23:06 UTC
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The head of the U.N. World Food Program or WFP says famine has been averted in Afghanistan, but she says many people are still not getting enough food.

Catherine Bertini is on a two-day visit to Afghanistan, including bakeries in Kabul funded by the food program.

Ms. Bertini told reporters Tuesday the program has sent food to every secure area of Afghanistan. But she said many Afghans are still living on insufficient diets.

A program spokeswoman told VOA the situation around three Afghan cities -- Herat, Kandahar, and Mazar-e-Sharif, is still difficult because bandits and tribes stole food supplies after the Taleban fled.

Ms. Bertini Tuesday praised local authorities for helping recover tons of stolen food.

She also visited one of the 21 WFP-funded bakeries in Kabul. Ms. Bertini said the bakeries not only feed more than 67-hundred hungry Afghan families, they also provide work for hundreds of widows.

The World Food Program is sending food enough for feeding more than six-million Afghans in what the United States calls one of the largest humanitarian efforts in history.

Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Air Force had dropped two-point-five million ready-to-eat meals into Afghanistan. The Pentagon halted the airdrops after it secured Afghan airfields following the end of the Taleban.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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