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U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov
(202) 712-43202001-080
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2001Contact: USAID Press Office
As part of President Bush's $320 million humanitarian package for Afghanistan, the U.S. is providing funding to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) to airlift U.S. Government-donated wheat from World Food Program's warehouse in Quetta, Pakistan to Turkmenabad, Turkmenistan.
Over the next several days, WFP aircraft will fly three to four flights a day between Pakistan and Turkmenistan for a total of 30 to 40 flights over a 10-day period. The wheat will then be loaded onto trucks destined for northern Afghanistan.
Each flight rotation will carry 38 to 40 metric tons of wheat for a total of 2,000 metric tons. This is enough wheat to feed approximately 80,000 families for one month.
The WFP warehouse in Turkmenabad is virtually empty right now. USAID provided funds to WFP last week to purchase 15,000 metric tons of wheat in Kazakstan, which will begin arriving in Turkmenabad in less than two weeks. "The airlift will serve to jumpstart stocking the WFP Turkmenabad warehouse, so that regular shipments of food can begin at a steady pace into northern Afghanistan, as has been occurring in other parts of the country," said Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Afghanistan was the U.S. Government's number one recipient of humanitarian assistance prior to September 11, and remains so today. The United States has supplied more than 80 percent of all food aid for vulnerable Afghans through the WFP and will continue to be the leading food donor to the Afghan people.
The United States Agency for International Development is the U.S. Government agency that has provided economic development and humanitarian assistance worldwide for 40 years.
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