India sends food aid to Afghanistan on humanitarian grounds, upon Taliban's request

Acute food insecurity affecting two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population has caused India to respond with aid, despite it not recognising the Taliban government. Earlier this year, at a security conference about Afghanistan in Moscow, NSA chief Ajit Doval had made it clear that India will not abandon the Afghans in their time of need. According to World Food Programme, nine out of 10 Afghan families can not afford enough food at present and at least 20 million Afghans were facing the threat of starvation.

Image: Amit Dave / Reuters

Responding with humanitarian aid to Afghan’s food crisis, India’s first tranche of 2,500 metric tonnes of wheat sent through Iran’s Chabahar port is expected to arrive in Herat, Afghanistan this week.

Image: Mohsin Raza / Reuters

A file photo of supply trucks carrying aid shipments containing wheat to Afghanistan, move in a convoy near Lahore, Pakistan. India had already sent 40,000 MT of wheat to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan through a land border with Pakistan after Islamabad agreed in a landmark decision. Pak doesn’t otherwise allow outbound trade from India through its territory. 

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Image: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A view of Chabahar seaport, located in the Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeastern Iran. The Indian government is sending 20,000 MT of wheat through the port for delivery to Afghanistan, after declaring that India will never abandon the Afghan people in their time of need.

Image: Mohsen KARIMI / AFP

Women receive food aid distributed by a charity foundation in Herat, Afghanistan on April 11, 2023. Two-thirds of the country’s population is food insecure and need humanitarian and protection assistance this year.

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Image: Ali Khara / Reuters

Taliban leaders attend the first-anniversary ceremony of the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 15, 2022. Since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the economy has failed to recover, keeping millions of people on the verge of starvation.

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A file photo from Herat, Afghanistan last year shows a family beset by acute poverty feeding dry flour to their children. Driven by poverty, the children’s father had sold two of his daughters and was planning to sell the others too. About 875,000 children face acute malnutrition while women and girls remain most at risk, said Human Rights Watch.