01/04/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09624

A FAMINE AVERTED

Three months ago, Afghanistan was facing a humanitarian catastrophe. More than one and a half million people were at risk of death from starvation. Another six-million were facing a severe food shortage. Today, many are still at risk and most will remain dependent on humanitarian aid for some time. But thanks to massive food shipments from the United States and other countries, widespread famine appears to have been averted.

"There will be no famine in Afghanistan this winter," said Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program. "There will be deaths," she warned, "because the country was in a pre-famine condition this summer before the war started." But deaths from malnutrition "will be isolated and not large-scale."

More than two decades of war, years of repression by the Taleban, and three years of severe drought brought hunger and misery to the people of Afghanistan. The Taleban diverted resources from economic development to the war against its opponents and the sponsorship of international terrorists. That sponsorship led to the horrific attacks of September 11^th. Rather than hand over Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorists, Mullah Mohammed Omar and his gang preferred war with the U.S.-led international coalition.

The Taleban made the crisis worse by shutting down international relief operations and stealing food meant for starving Afghans. In cooperation with the Northern Alliance, the coalition defeated Taleban forces and made it possible to reopen critical supply routes. In November, the World Food Program delivered fifty-five thousand tons of food to Afghanistan, the greatest single-month delivery since 1964. In December, a record-breaking one-hundred-sixteen thousand metric tons of food was shipped. The U.S. supplied more than half of this food and the money for shipping it.

But problems remain. Some food deliveries are being impeded by armed factions demanding payments from relief truck drivers. Roads and transport systems must be rebuilt. And long-term economic development, including reviving Afghanistan’s ruined agricultural sector, must begin. The U.S. is working closely with Afghan authorities and international aid organizations to help rebuild the country. There is much work ahead but the worst, it appears, is over.