ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: Armed militias are stopping trucks carrying food into southern Afghanistan, demanding a toll to allow them to proceed and hampering distribution to hungry Afghans, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

The militia are demanding $100 from each truck, hired by WFP to deliver food to Kandahar, WFP spokesman Jordan Dey said.

Without paying the “tax”, the trucks were not being allowed to enter the city, he said.

This security risk meant the UN agency still could not send its own trucks to the city, which was the stronghold of the fundamentalist Taliban until they surrendered it to tribal chieftains on December 7.

“Staff, food, and trucks are ready to move into Kandahar as soon as the security situation allows,” Dey said.

Some 238,000 people in the region may be vulnerable, WFP said.

The United Nations agency was now seeking a suitable warehouse to use in Kandahar after most were destroyed or looted during the U.S. aerial bombardment that defeated the Taliban.

However, the food agency was able to send food along the road, which passes through Kandahar, to the western city of Herat, thus reopening a major delivery artery, because secure warehouses were available there, the spokesman said.—Reuters