As the harsh winter continues, WFP has begun delivering food assistance to support more than 3,600 women and children in the Afghan province of Badakhshan, along the border with Tajikistan.

According to WFP office in Tajikistan, a convoy of ten trucks left WFP’s warehouses in Dushanbe on December 18 carrying food assistance to the areas of Nusai and Khum Raghi, located in Darwaz district only 5 kilometers from the border.  A second convoy will be sent to the two areas next week.

WFP is reportedly delivering a total of 320 metric tons of food including peas, wheat flour, vegetable oil, nutrition supplements and iodized salt.

“Badakhshan province is extremely mountainous and many remote villages are cut off from the rest of the country during the winter months,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Tajikistan Paolo Mattei.  “The levels of hunger and undernourishment in Afghanistan are quite high, especially among children and women and this gets even worse during the long winter months.”

The food assistance will be provided for malnourished mothers and children under the age of five for a period of eight months as part of WFP’s nutrition intervention in Afghanistan.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.  Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.