Russia delivered a first batch of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan on Thursday, including 36 tonnes of food, medicine, and essential goods, Tass reported.
On the eve of the cargo flight, Dmitry Zhirnov, the Russian envoy in Afghanistan, stated, “The special flights carried out by the Russian Defense Ministry will deliver to Afghanistan a large consignment of humanitarian cargo prepared by the Emergencies Ministry. It includes food, medicine and essential goods. The first batch of 36 tonnes will be delivered on November 18. Then there are going to be two more shipments…. Overall, over 100 tonnes of humanitarian aid will be supplied.”
According to Zhirnov, the Taliban affirmed that the aid would be distributed among those in need. “This is essential. The Afghan authorities understand that any mistake will seriously complicate their further work with foreign funders,” Zhirnov said.
Along the same lines, and reflecting what some other humanitarian agencies have said, on Tuesday an FAO official told U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) that the Taliban are being fully cooperative, that they understand the urgent need of getting humanitarian aid distributed to the population, and that they have also provided security to him and his staff so that they feel completely safe as they go about their work. He reported that aid is now beginning to flow “at scale,” but the danger is, that as winter settles in, key roads and mountain passes will be blocked and hinder delivery of aid, underlining the need to act as quickly as possible to get aid distributed in the weeks immediately ahead.
