KABUL, 14 November (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people affected by the recent conflict and this year's harsh drought in southern Afghanistan will receive food assistance, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday in the capital, Kabul.

"Over 1,300 mt of food will be distributed to over 81,000 people displaced by the recent conflict in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces this month," said Ebadullah Ebadi, a public information officer with WFP.

To cope with the drought which has affected some 1.9 million people countrywide, the UN food agency will distribute over 1,100 mt of mixed food such as cereals, oil, pulses and iodised salt to some 70,000 people, including widows, orphans and the disabled in Zabul, Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces, the agency said.

South and eastern Afghanistan have witnessed ongoing violence this year, blamed on resurgent Taliban militants, who were toppled from power by a US-led coalition in 2001. The violence has claimed the lives of some 3,000 people and forced 20,000 families to flee their houses in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

WFP will also position 2,000 mt of mixed food commodities to distribute to 200,000 needy people in 26 districts of the southern provinces of Helmand, Nimroz, Zabul, Urozgan and Kandahar through its food-for-work programme in the coming weeks.

The food-for-work schemes provide food to Afghans while building or repairing vital infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, reservoirs and irrigation systems.

But local authorities in southern Kandahar said that the assistance coming to the region was not enough to meet the needs of thousands of displaced families in Panjwaii and Zhari districts.

"Many displaced people in Panjwaii and Zhari districts are still in urgent need of assistance and mostly need shelter and food items to face the harsh forthcoming winter," Agha Mohammad Nazari, deputy director of the refugees and repatriation department of Kandahar province, told IRIN.

"The assistance that is coming will support them only for a few weeks, but they have to cope with several months of harsh winter," Nazari asserted.

As the winter approaches, WFP plans to pre-position approximately 21,000 mt of mixed commodities to feed 2.3 million beneficiaries in seven provinces across the country, including Badakhshan, Uruzgan, Ghor, Daikundi. These and other provinces will soon become inaccessible due to heavy snow.

But officials of the UN food agency in Kabul said it was facing food shortages and called for further international donations for the next six months.

WFP's current shortfall for all Afghan activities for the coming six months is 43,500 mt of wheat and other commodities valued at US $30 million, according to Ebadi. WFP estimates that, beyond the 3.5 million people it plans to assist through its regular programme in 2006, an average of 1.9 million people will need assistance each month until the next harvest because of the drought.

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