UN Conducts First Humanitarian Flight To Kabul Since Taliban's Takeover - WFP

UN Conducts First Humanitarian Flight to Kabul Since Taliban's Takeover - WFP

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday that it managed to resume the air link with Kabul after conducting its first humanitarian flight since the Taliban (banned in Russia) took over Afghanistan last month

UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2021) The UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday that it managed to resume the air link with Kabul after conducting its first humanitarian flight since the Taliban (banned in Russia) took over Afghanistan last month.

"The WFP-led United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has resumed flights to Kabul, enabling humanitarian responders and much-needed relief items to reach desperate Afghans in multiple locations across the country," the UN agency said in a press release.

Flights to Kabul restarted on September 12 after a temporary pause in the wake of the Taliban's capture of Afghanistan's capital city on August 15, the release said.

However, WFP's flights between Islamabad, Pakistan, and the Afghan towns of Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat have been up and running since August 29, the release added.

WFP said it needs $30 million to keep air services going on top of the requested $200 million to replenish its food pipeline.

Food and Agriculture Organization Office of Emergencies and Resilience Director Rein Paulsen has said some 4 million Afghans currently find themselves in emergencies, experiencing extreme gaps in food consumption, very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.

Earlier in September, the United Nations appealed for $606 million to support vulnerable Afghans until the end of 2021. On Monday, international donors at the conference in Geneva pledged to provide $1.2 billion to support humanitarian action in the country, exceeding the amount requested.