Thousands of Afghans receive assistance within week: UN agency

Kabul (Afghanistan), October 22: Thousands of Afghans have received humanitarian assistance within a week from Oct. 11-17 across Afghanistan, a United Nations agency confirmed on Friday.
In northeast, 2,625 internally displaced people, who recently returned to their villages, received household items in Badakhshan province, the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said in a press release on its website.
"An additional 6,013 returnees received humanitarian assistance across the northeast. A total of 164,556 vulnerable people received food assistance under the World Food Programme (WFP) seasonal assistance program in Badakhshan, Kunduz, and Takhar provinces," the release said.
In the north, 43,001 vulnerable people received food for one month under the WFP seasonal livelihoods support program in Jawzjan and Sari Pul provinces, while 3,976 people including displaced people and returnees received humanitarian assistance in capital of Balkh and Faryab provinces.
In the south, 19,178 people were assisted with household items, hygiene kits, and tents in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces, according to the source.
"Also, 1,942 families received cash assistance in Helmand, Zabul, and Uruzgan provinces," it said.
Some 56,000 people received humanitarian assistance in the east while 2,000 others were assisted in western region during the cited period.
In central region, 3,108 people who were displaced by conflict in August received humanitarian assistance in Kabul, Khost, and Parwan provinces when 11,935 internally displaced people present in Kabul received cash and transportation support to return to their places of origin, according to the release.
Following the Taliban's takeover in mid-August, the security situation remained generally calm across the country.
According to OCHA, millions of Afghans have been deeply affected by decades of conflict and displacement, chronic poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic, a severe drought, a failing health system and an economy on the brink of collapse.
Source: Xinhua