Instability, war and closed borders: How aid workers are providing emergency food to hungry Afghan children

Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan face hunger and poverty. The country has experienced repeated floods and earthquakes, reduced humanitarian funding, and two crises along its borders.

Congestion and logistics

For many Afghan schoolchildren, enriched biscuits are distributed by the World Food Program (WFP) is often the most nutritious food they receive all day. But getting supplies into the country is a logistical minefield.

Take, for example, this 397 metric ton of primary nutrition assistance, intended for 172,000 students, shipped from the port of Surabaya in Indonesia, which is part of the Government of Indonesia’s US$3.5 million contribution to support WFP school meals in Afghanistan.

The first supplies were sent by ship to the port of Karachi in southern Pakistan, but from there things got more complicated.

The initial plan was for the shipment to be transferred to trucks for the 7,000km journey through Pakistan, however, amid tensions between the country and Afghanistan, the border was closed.

Hunger can’t wait

New routes must be found urgently because, as Corinne Fleischer, WFP Director of Supply Chain and Delivery, said, “hunger does not wait for routes to reopen”.

WFP shipping officials rerouted the cargo to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, with plans to send it across the Persian Gulf to Iran and then move it by road.

However, geopolitics struck again and, as instability spread across the Middle East, resulting in the closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz since March, the WFP was forced to rethink its plans once again.

Inside the WFP operations room, logistics experts went back to basics, poring over maps to see if the geography of the region might offer a solution.

They discovered one thing: an entirely new land corridor from Dubai to landlocked Afghanistan across the Caucasus. This is more expensive, more complicated and adds another 8,000 km to the journey, but it is the only option left.

New route, new hope

One overcast morning, a convoy of 21 trucks pulled out of Dubai and traveled along the desert highways of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, passing through Jordan, Syria, Türkiye, and Georgia before boarding a ferry in Baku, Azerbaijan, and crossing the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan.

Days later, the trucks crossed into Afghanistan via the remote Torghundi border, before continuing on to Kabul. Each country the convoy passes through requires new customs clearance, security assessments, transportation permits and coordination across seven borders.

Along the route, truck drivers have to wait for a long time at border crossings, sign documents and enjoy the moment of sleeping under the open sky.

“I remember the ferry line at Alat port[Baku]where hundreds of trucks are waiting to cross – the route is almost 30 km long,” said Hüseyin Sarraç Ulus, a Turkish truck driver who traveled about 3,000 km from Dubai to the Caspian Sea.

Work day and night

“We drove about 11 hours a day and slept in the cab of the truck almost every night – it wasn’t always comfortable, but we got used to it,” he recalls. “We eat simple food like soup, bread, rice and tea. But it tastes good. Knowing this cargo is helping children makes me proud to be part of this journey.”

Inside a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul, Abdul Ahad Monib watched trucks slowly return to their loading and unloading areas.

“There was a feeling of relief when we saw the trucks arrive,” said Monib, WFP Supply Chain and Delivery officer. “We are following every step of this journey closely – every delay, every border crossing, every change of plan.

After weeks of circulation, the biscuits reached the hands of girls and boys in schools in Ghor, Nuristan and Paktika provinces, in central, northeastern and eastern Afghanistan respectively.

“For children, it’s a packet of biscuits that helps them stay healthy,” Monib said. “For us, this is a logistical feat. No one sees the thousands of kilometers, delays or rerouting behind every package. But that’s the bottom line – whatever the obstacles, WFP will make it happen.”

This story was first published on WFP website.