AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: The United Kingdom on Monday announced a new aid package of £25 million of live-saving assistance to thousands of drought-hit Afghans.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt announcing the aid, said: “UK will provide vital food, shelter and clean water to Afghans affected by one of the worst droughts the country has ever faced,”
A statement from the British embassy quoted her as urging other donors to step up alongside UK and join the international efforts to support some of the world’s most vulnerable people and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
Mordaunt said: “This deadly drought is already affecting millions of Afghans, many of whom have had to leave their homes and livelihoods in desperate search of basic necessities.”
Today’s UK aid package of £25 million is new funding from the UK Department for International Development’s crisis reserve fund. It comes on top of £10 million provided to the drought response by DFID earlier this year, bringing DFID’s total spend on the humanitarian response in Afghanistan to £67 million, the statement said.
The aid package provided by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as following:
Provide tents and urgent relief items for up to 260,000 people who have fled their homes ahead of a bitter severe winter
Provide 602,660 people with food or cash transfers to buy essential items, with a monthly ration of special nutritious food to prevent malnutrition in young children for every household
Provide drought affected people with access to healthcare, clean water and sanitation so they can remain in their homes over winter.
The UK is the second largest humanitarian donor in Afghanistan. UK aid is helping to build a more stable, prosperous country for all Afghans.