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Floods in Pakistan threaten Afghanistan’s food supply: UN

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The devastating floods in Pakistan will place huge strains on efforts to get food into neighboring Afghanistan to relieve its catastrophic humanitarian crisis, the United Nations warned on Friday.

The UN’s World Food Programme said much of the food aid transited through Pakistan by road -- a network that has been severely affected by the worst floods in the country’s history.

“We’re focused absolutely on the needs of the people in Pakistan right now but the ramifications of what we’re experiencing here go wider,” WFP’s Pakistan country director Chris Kaye said.

“We’re becoming very, very concerned about the overall food security, not only in Pakistan in the immediate and medium term, but also for what it’s going to imply for the operations in Afghanistan.

Large amounts of its food enter via the port of Karachi. “Pakistan provides a vital supply route into Afghanistan,” he said.

“With roads that have been washed away, that presents us with a major logistical challenge,” Kaye said.

“WFP has procured over 320,000 metric tonnes in the past year to support operations in Afghanistan. The floods in Pakistan are going to put a huge dent in that capability.”

He said there was a “major problem” in restoring agricultural production in Pakistan to feed its own people and continue supplying food to Afghanistan.

A further issue was that the wheat harvest was being stored in flooded areas of Pakistan, and “a large proportion of the wheat has been washed away.”

He said the food security situation in Pakistan was “grave” even before the floods, with 43 percent of people food insecure and the country ranking at 92 out of 116 on the Global Hunger Index.

Monsoon rains have submerged a third of Pakistan, claiming more than a thousand lives since June and unleashing powerful floods that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.

Officials have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

Afghanistan’s 38 million people face a desperate humanitarian crisis -- aggravated after billions of dollars in assets were frozen and foreign aid dried up when the Islamic Emirate took over a year ago.

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Human traffickers should be sentenced to 1 to 3 years in prison: IEA leader

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The Leader of the Islamic Emirate has issued a decree instructing the Ministry of Interior Affairs to prevent human trafficking and to arrest and refer culprits to military courts.

The decree containing six articles says that that military courts should sentence human traffickers to one year in prison for the first time, two years if repeated for the second time and three years if repeated for the third time.

The ministries of Hajj, information, telecommunications, borders, propagation of virtue, as well as religious scholars are asked to inform the public about the dangers and adverse consequences of travelling through smuggling routes.

The decree comes as the rate of migration has increased following the political change in Afghanistan in 2021.

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Eight Afghan migrants die as boat capsizes off Greek island

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Eight Afghan migrants died after a speedboat carrying migrants capsized off Greece's eastern island of Rhodes on Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Greek authorities said that the capsizing was the result of the boat’s maneuvering to evade a patrol vessel.

A total of 18 migrants — 12 men, three women and three minors — all Afghan nationals, were rescued, Greece's coast guard said Saturday. The dead were also from Afghanistan, it said.

Some migrants remained hospitalized, with one in critical condition, authorities said.

Two Turkish citizens, ages 23 and 19, were arrested as the suspected traffickers. The boat sank after capsizing, the coast guard said.

The sinking off Rhodes was the second deadly incident involving migrants in the past week.

Seven migrants were killed and dozens were believed missing after a boat partially sank south of the island of Crete over the weekend — one of four rescue operations during which more than 200 migrants were rescued.

 

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Norwegian Chargé d’Affaires meets with IEA deputy foreign minister

Welcoming the diplomat’s visit to Kabul, Stanikzai underscored the importance of political relations between Afghanistan and Norway, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

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The Norwegian Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan, Per Albert Ilsaas, on Saturday met with IEA’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, in Kabul.

Welcoming the diplomat’s visit to Kabul, Stanikzai underscored the importance of political relations between Afghanistan and Norway, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In addition to focusing on bilateral political, humanitarian, and other pertinent issues, the two sides expressed hope that continued engagement would lead to constructive solutions to related issues.

This comes two weeks after the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi expressed disappointment regarding the decision by the Norwegian government to downgrade diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.

Balkhi said in a post on X that such decisions should not be linked with internal affairs of other countries.

“Diplomatic engagement is most effective when it fosters mutual understanding and respect, even amidst differing viewpoints,” he stated.

“Access to consular services is a fundamental right of all nationals. We strongly urge all parties to prioritize this principle in the spirit of international cooperation,” he added.

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