The UN World Food Program (WFP) welcomed a contribution from the government of China to crisis-affected families in Afghanistan for 2023.
With the funding, WFP will be able to provide life-saving food assistance to nearly 70,000 food-insecure people in areas struck by acute food insecurity, the organization said in a statement.
Wand Yu, Ambassador of China to Afghanistan, said, “Since 2022, the Chinese government and people have donated large amounts of humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan to help the people overcome difficulties.”
Chinese Ambassador also said, this year, China continues to cooperate with the World Food Programme to provide food assistance to the people of Afghanistan through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund.”
According to WFP, nearly 15 million people are experiencing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity in Afghanistan.
“This year, WFP in Afghanistan is faced with an acute funding crisis, and this timely contribution from the Chinese Government comes at a moment when continued support is most needed,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP Afghanistan Country Director and Representative. “Over 15 million people are estimated to be experiencing acute food insecurity across the country, and sustained humanitarian assistance is needed to keep already worrying hunger and malnutrition rates from further increasing.”
Already this year, WFP was forced to cut back its ration size for all families and reduce the number of beneficiaries by 8 million people due to lack of funding.
With this latest contribution, WFP plans to buy nearly 1,500 metric tons of wheat flour, 185 tons of yellow split peas, more than 130 tons of vegetable oil, and 15 tons of salt. This will allow WFP to support nearly 70,000 families for two months.
In Afghanistan in 2022, WFP supplied 1.14 million tons of food and $325.8 million in cash transfers to 23 million people. Of the 23 million people assisted, 11.6 million were women, and 12.3 million were children.
