A spokesman for the World Food Programme, Khaled Mansour, said the agency needed 5,500,000 tons of food for distribution in and outside Afghanistan for the current year, but at present the agency possessed only 60 per cent of the required amount.
He said due to shortage the WFP had slowed down its food distribution operation in Afghanistan and reduced the size of food package from 150kg to 100kg for the repatriating refugees.
Talking to Dawn at Shamshatoo refugee camp, some 40km south of Peshawar on Tuesday, the spokesman said that the UN agencies, including the WFP and the UNHCR, were facing multiple problems to streamline their relief operations inside the war-torn country.
“The issue is serious, but the donor countries do not honour their commitments,” he maintained.
He said the UNHCR was likely to stop cash grant to the refugees returning to their homeland from August. The UN refugee agency initially paid $100 to each family but the amount had been slashed by 50 per cent.
When asked why the WFP had stopped assistance to the internally-displaced people in Kandahar, the spokesman said: “Although it is not known, the decision might have been taken in view of the empty warehouses there.”
He said the WFP and the UNHCR had received only $358 million, out of $555 million needed for the rehabilitation of Afghanistan for the current year.
The spokesman said the WFP required 90,000 tons of wheat and other food items per month for Afghanistan - 50,000 tons for operations inside Afghanistan and 40,000 tons for the externally displaced people - while the total requirement was 55,00,000 tons for the current year.
MORRIS VISIT: The WFP Executive Director, James T. Morris, visited Shamshatoo refugee camp on Tuesday. He visited the health care centre and vocational centres for men and women in the camp.
The Afghan Commissionerate officials informed the WFP official that 1,752 families had returned to their homeland, out of 11,224 from the camp under the voluntary repatriation programme.