{"id":85988,"date":"2026-06-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/instability-war-and-closed-borders-how-aid-workers-get-emergency-food-to-hungry-afghan-children\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:00:00","slug":"instability-war-and-closed-borders-how-aid-workers-get-emergency-food-to-hungry-afghan-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=85988","title":{"rendered":"Instability, war and closed borders: How aid workers get emergency food to hungry Afghan children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan face hunger and poverty. The country suffers from repeated floods and earthquakes, declining humanitarian funding and two crises along its borders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Logjams and logistics<\/h2>\n
For many Afghan schoolchildren, the fortified biscuits distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) are often the most nutritious food they will receive all day. But getting the supplies into the country is a logistical minefield.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, the 397 metric tons of this key nutritional boost, intended for some 172,000 students, shipped from Indonesia\u2019s Surabaya port, part of a US$3.5 million contribution from the Government of Indonesia to support WFP school meals in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The supplies are first sent by boat to the southern Pakistani port of Karachi, but from there things get more complicated.<\/p>\n
The original plan was for the shipment to be transferred to trucks for a 7,000 km trip through Pakistan but, amid tensions between the country and Afghanistan, the border was closed.<\/p>\n
Hunger cannot wait<\/h2>\n
A new route has to be found quickly because, as Corinne Fleischer, Director of WFP Supply Chain and Delivery, says, \u201chunger doesn\u2019t wait for routes to reopen\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WFP shipping officers reroute the cargo to the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai, with a plan to ship it across the Persian Gulf to Iran and then move it on by road.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n \u00a9 WFP\/Isheeta Sumra<\/span> \n Food supplies provided by the UN are offloaded at a warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan. <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
However, geopolitics strikes again and, as instability spread across the Middle East, in effect closing the critical Strait of Hormuz since March, WFP is forced to rethink the plan once more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside WFP operations rooms, logisticians go back to basics, poring over maps to see whether the region\u2019s geography might offer a solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They find one: an entirely new land corridor from Dubai to landlocked Afghanistan across the Caucasus. It\u2019s costlier, more complex and adds another 8,000 km to the journey, but it is the only remaining option.<\/p>\n
New route, new hope<\/h2>\n
One overcast morning, a 21-truck convoy rumbles out of Dubai and heads out along the desert highways of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, up through Jordan, Syria, T\u00fcrkiye and Georgia before boarding a ferry in Baku, Azerbaijan, and crossing the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n
Days later, the trucks cross into Afghanistan through the remote Torghundi border crossing, before continuing on to Kabul. Every country the convoy passes through requires new customs clearances, security assessments, transport permits and coordination across seven borders.<\/p>\n
Along the route, truck drivers face long waits at border crossings, signing paperwork and snatching moments of sleep beneath open skies.<\/p>\n\n \u00a9 WFP\/Arete<\/span> \n WFP truck in Afghanistan (file)<\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cI remember the ferry line at Alat port [Baku]\u202fwhere\u202fhundreds of trucks were waiting to cross\u202f\u2013 the line was close to 30\u202fkm\u202flong,\u201d says\u202fH\u00fcseyin Sarra\u00e7 Ulus,\u202fa Turkish truck driver who\u202fmade the roughly 3,000 km journey from Dubai to the Caspian Sea.<\/p>\n
Working day and night<\/h2>\n
\u201cWe drove around 11 hours a day and\u202fslept in the truck cabin most nights \u2013\u202fit was not always\u202fcomfortable,\u202fbut we are used to it,” he recalls. “We ate simple food like soup, bread,\u202frice\u202fand tea.\u202fBut\u202fit felt good. Knowing the cargo was helping children\u202fmade\u202fme proud to be part of the journey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul, Abdul Ahad Monib watches as the trucks slowly back into unloading bays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a feeling of relief when we saw the trucks arrive,\u201d says Mr. Monib, a WFP Supply Chain and Delivery officer. \u201cWe followed every step of the journey closely \u2013 every delay, every border crossing, every change of plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After weeks on the road, the biscuits reach the hands of girls and boys in schools across Ghor, Nuristan and Paktika provinces, in central, northeastern and eastern Afghanistan, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the children, it\u2019s a packet of biscuits that helps them stay healthy,\u201d says Monib. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s a logistics feat. No one sees the thousands of kilometres, the delays or the rerouting behind each packet. But that\u2019s exactly the point \u2013 whatever the obstacles, WFP delivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was first published on the WFP <\/em>website<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n