ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The World Food Programme on Tuesday confirmed the death of 176 persons, mostly children, in an IDP camp near Kunduz due to non-delivery of food assistance for over a month.

Speaking at a news conference, a WFP spokesperson, Khalid Mansour, said the conditions in the Bagh-i-Sherkat IDP camp near Kunduz were “extremely difficult and rough”.

The spokesperson said that many of the 22,000 people in the Bagh-i-Sherkat IDP camp were without shelter, blankets or food for nearly a month when the city remained cut off from the outside world due to fighting.

He said that the offices of the International Office of Migration used for food distribution were occupied by the Taliban on Nov 8. Access was possible on Dec 5, and elders from the IDP camp reported that 176 people, many of whom were children, had died since September because of the deteriorating conditions, WFP spokesperson said.

Expressing concern over the food situation in Kunduz, Mansour said that the WFP was doing its best to deliver food in extremely difficult terrain and environment, specially at a time when the area had just gone through military hostilities.

The WFP has been unable to provide food to some 250,000 stranded people in Kandahar too since September.

Talking about the WFP operations, the spokesperson said the agency was stepping up food deliveries to some one million people who live in the mountains in central and northeast Afghanistan with enough food to sustain them through the winter months.

Rejecting criticism of the WFP food delivery operations in Kabul, the spokesperson said that the TV and newspaper pictures of Afghans crowding at distribution sites in Kabul were largely due to a local radio broadcast which created a misunderstanding about the food distribution schedule.

About the incidents of lootings, the WFP spokesperson said that a group of 12 armed men on Dec 7 entered the WFP warehouse in Spin Boldak and took with them a petrol generator, a photocopier, and a high-frequency communication radio.

He said the WFP officials were watching the situation closely and hoping that soon the Afghan factions and the new authority would stabilize the situation and enable humanitarian workers to return.