- ISLAMABAD - An International
Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) assessment mission on Friday reported that
young girls in western part of the war-torn Afghanistan were on sale for
a 100 kg bag of wheat. The mission returned from western Afghanistan after
watching scenes of great deprivation in villages and remote mountain valleys
cut off from the outside world for years. A senior official of the IFRC
said: "Girls were offered as brides for as little as 100 kg of wheat
flour."
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- The combined effects of 23 years of war and the last
three years of drought have left many people entirely destitute. The IFRC
team said, "Girls as young as ten are being offered for marriage in
exchange for bags of flour in a desperate struggle for survival in parts
of Herat and Farah provinces in western Afghanistan."
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- A team member said: "We saw children digging in
the fields for roots to eat and use as firewood. Leaves from the trees
were also being eaten." The IFRC is currently engaged in channelling
non-food support to five provinces in western Afghanistan. However, following
the report of the assessment team, the Red Cross is planning further interventions
"particularly in bringing mobile health services to remote rural areas
and supporting a revival of agriculture through food-for-work schemes tackling
irrigation projects, and the distribution of tools and seeds".
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- The IFRC team reported widespread scenes of shocking
poverty in the remote mountain valley of Rood Gaz, which provides a snapshot
of the appalling legacy of war, and drought in western Afghanistan. The
assessment team reportedly surveyed 12 villages in the remote valley, counting
a population of 10,305 people. Among them, it found 510 orphans, 261 widows
and 699 elderly people largely dependent on their impoverished neighbours
and remittances from refugees in Iran to stay alive.
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- A senior team member said in many of the villages there
was no agricultural activity because of the drought, no seeds were available
for planting, and much of the livestock had either died or been sold off.
Meanwhile, Wendy Darby, a top official of the IFRC, urged the humanitarian
agencies involved in food distributions to "take into account the
needs in remote locations outside the major towns, like the Rood Gaz valley
where people have no access to urban centres".
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- Despite the fall of Taliban, the United Nations and some
other international agencies could not expand their programmes due to poor
security conditions, presence of landmines and unexploded munitions and
fear of 'al-Qaeda terrorists'.
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