The United Nations warned on Friday that the disastrous, sea-like floods in Pakistan will put a substantial strain on efforts to bring food and humanitarian assistance into Afghanistan to ease its dire humanitarian situation.
Much of the food supplies, according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), were transported via Pakistan by road, a route that has been seriously damaged by the strongest floods in the country’s history.
Chris Kaye, the WFP’s Pakistan country director, said that while Pakistan is their priority, the ramifications of what Pakistan experiences “go wider.”
The UN official for Pakistan stated that the WFP is growing very concerned about what the Pakistan floods will entail for the operations in Afghanistan.
“With roads that have been washed away, that presents us with a major logistical challenge,” Kaye told the media.
The fact that Pakistan’s flooded areas were used to store the wheat harvest and a considerable amount of the wheat has been swept away, was another problem according to the WFP official.
The death toll from Pakistan’s terrible floods reportedly has surpassed 1,260 as Pakistan is struggling to respond to the floods that according to the government have affected over 33 million people in Pakistan.
The Afghan population, 38 million, is in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis, aggravated by the billions of dollars of frozen assets after the Taliban took over the country.
