Russia To Deliver Humanitarian Relief To Afghanistan

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has started fulfilling a multilateral agreement that stipulates the delivery of humanitarian relief to Afghanistan on a par with the World Food Program and Britain's Department for International Development. This was disclosed here the other day by Russia's First Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Yury Brazhnikov, who was addressing Euro-Parliament hearings as regards the provision of aid to Afghanistan. According to Brazhnikov, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry intends to team up with similar Kirghiz and Tajik ministries, subsequently delivering some 9,000 tons of food to Ishkakim and Faizabad (Afghanistan) during the next two months from warehouses in Osh, Kirghizia. Plans are in place to deliver a total of 16,000 tons of food later on. In his words, more than 300 trucks will be used for this purpose. The first truck convoys are to leave November 10, Brazhnikov went on to say. Some 30-35 trucks will be performing 2-3 trips per day, he added. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry is studying the possibility of using three humanitarian corridors for delivering substantial humanitarian-aid batches to northern Afghanistan within the framework of its prerogatives. The first such corridor links Russia (or Europe) with Dushanbe and Kulyab. As a matter of fact, it is already being used rather actively by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, the Emergency Situations Ministry of Tajikistan and their northern-alliance partners. The second corridor links Kirghizia's Osh with Khorog on Tajik territory, as well as Ishkakim and Faizabad in mountainous Badakhshan (north-eastern Afghanistan). And the third corridor links Termez, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif. The Russian side is ready to engage in any forms of cooperation, the most unusual cooperation options included, Brazhnikov said in conclusion.