16-09-2021

THuRSDAY, SePTembeR 16 , 2021
7
Four million Afghans are facing "a food emergency" and the majority live in rural areas where $36
million is urgently needed for the coming months to ensure the planting of winter wheat, feed for
livestock.
Photo : Internet
UN officials says rural Afghans
have critical need for aid
UNITED NATIONS : Four million
Afghans are facing "a food emergency"
and the majority live in rural areas
where $36 million is urgently needed
for the coming months to ensure the
planting of winter wheat, feed for
livestock, and cash assistance for
vulnerable families, the elderly and
disabled, a U.N. official said Tuesday,
reports UNB.
Rein Paulsen, director of the Food
and Agriculture Organization's Office of
Emergencies and Resilience, told
reporters at U.N. headquarters in a
video briefing from Kabul that 70% of
Afghans live in rural areas and there is a
severe drought affecting 7.3 million
Afghans in 25 of the country's 34
provinces. These vulnerable rural
communities have also been hit by the
pandemic, he said.
Paulsen said 4 million Afghans are
facing a humanitarian emergency,
characterized by "extreme gaps in food
consumption, very high levels of acute
malnutrition and excess mortality."
He said agriculture is "indispensable"
to the Afghan population. He said it
accounts for just over 25% of the
country's GDP, directly employs some
45% of the work force, "and most
importantly it provides livelihood
benefits for fully 80% of the Afghan
Ex-jihadi bride asks
UK for forgiveness,
aims to return home
LONDON : A British woman
who ran away from home at
age 15 to join the Islamic State
group in Syria has asked for
forgiveness and appealed to
Prime Minister Boris Johnson
to let her come home.
Shamima Begum was one of
three east London schoolgirls
who traveled to Syria in 2015.
She has said she married an IS
member from the Netherlands
and had three children, all of
whom have died.
Now 22 and living in a
refugee camp in Syria, Begum
has sought to return home, but
the British government
revoked her citizenship on
national security grounds.
Begum has fought
unsuccessfully in the British
courts to have her U.K.
passport restored, reports
UNB.
"I know there are some
people, no matter what I say or
what I do, they will not believe
that I have changed, believe
that I want to help," she told
broadcaster ITV.
"But for those who have even
a drop of mercy and
compassion and empathy in
their hearts, I tell you from the
bottom of my heart that I regret
every, every decision I've made
since I stepped into Syria and I
will live with it for the rest of my
life."
Addressing Johnson, she
said: "I think I could very much
help you in your fight against
terrorism because you clearly
don't know what you're doing."
Begum, who wore a gray
tank top and a baseball cap,
rather than the black clothes
and hijab in which she was
once seen, said she had been
misled into thinking she was
going to Syria to live in an
"Islamic community" and
didn't commit violence.
population." Many vulnerable families
rely on livestock for food, he said, but 3
million animals are at risk as a result of
the drought leaving inadequate pasture.
Paulsen said the winter wheat planting
season-the most important in
Afghanistan-is threatened by
"challenges of the cash and banking
system" as well as challenges to markets
and agricultural items.
Since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15,
fears have grown that Afghanistan
could face economic collapse. Many
banks have been closed, those that are
open have limited cash withdrawals,
and prices for staples have increased.
"More than half of Afghans' daily
calorific intake comes from wheat,"
Paulsen said. "The crop is simply
indispensable in food security terms"
and farmers must start to plant now.
"FAO has resources in place to
support an extra 1.25 million Afghans
but much more is needed," he said.
"The seeds can't wait, the farmers can't
wait. This window is requiring an
urgent scale and support for donors
now." He said the FAO's package of
wheat, fertilizer and support for a single
farmer costs $150. "For $150 a family
of seven Afghans will produce 1.2
million tons of wheat-they'll produce
enough wheat to give them cereal and
flour for an entire 12-month period,"
Paulsen said. That $150 is "incredibly
impactful, very cost effective - and
again, (it) underscores why it's
imperative that we don't miss this
winter wheat season," he added.
He also said more than 400,000
Afghans are displaced from their
homes, mainly from rural areas, "and
those numbers are rising." He said
keeping farmers in their fields and
herders with their flocks is critical to
preventing a deepening displacement
crisis.
If agriculture collapses further,
Paulson warned, it will drive up
malnutrition, increase displacement
and worsen the humanitarian situation.
FAO in 2021 has supported nearly 2
million Afghans with livelihood and
cash assistance, Paulsen said. He said
the $36 million that the FAO needs
urgently for the winter farming season
was part of the U.N.'s emergency appeal
for $606 million. At a conference in
Geneva on Monday, donors pledged
$1.2 billion - double the amount sought,
which Paulsen called encouraging.
FAO hopes the pledges will fully fund
the $36 million needed, but Paulsen
noted that they are only promises for
now and donors need to quickly provide
the cash.
North Korea fires 2 ballistic
missiles off east coast:Seoul
SEOUL : North Korea fired two ballistic
missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, South
Korea's military said, two days after the North
claimed to have tested a new missile in its first
weapons test in six months, reports UNB.
The two ballistic missiles launched from a site
in central North Korea flew toward the waters
of the Korean Peninsula's east coast on
Wednesday afternoon, South Korea's Joint
Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The statement said South Korean and U.S.
intelligence authorities are analyzing more
details about the North Korean launches. It said
South Korea has boosted its anti-North Korea
surveillance posture.
Japan's coast guard confirmed the missiles
both landed outside Japanese Exclusive
Economic Zone in the waters between Japan
and the Korean Peninsula. No ships or aircraft
reported damage, the Coast Guard said.
North Korea said Monday it tested a newly
developed cruise missile twice over the
weekend. North Korea's state media described
the missile as a "strategic weapon of great
significance," implying they were developed
with the intent to arm them with nuclear
warheads. According to North Korean
accounts, the missile flew about 1,500
kilometers (930 miles), a distance that is
capable of reaching all of Japan and U.S.
military installations there.
Many experts say the North Korean test
suggested North Korea is pushing to bolster its
weapons arsenal amid a deadlock in nuclear
diplomacy between Pyongyang and
Washington. The latest launch came as Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for
meetings with South Korean President Moon
Jae-in and other senior officials to discuss the
stalled nuclear diplomacy with the North.
Talks between the United States and North
Korea have stalled since 2019, when the
Americans rejected the North's demand for
major sanctions relief in exchange for
dismantling an aging nuclear facility. Kim's
government has so far threatened to build hightech
weapons targeting the United States and
rejected the Biden administration's overtures
for dialogue, demanding that Washington
abandon its "hostile" policies first.
The North's resumption of testing activity
is likely an attempt at pressuring the Biden
administration over the diplomatic freeze
after Kim failed to leverage his arsenal for
economic benefits during the presidency of
Donald Trump.
South Korean television broadcast file footage in report about the North's
latest test with ballistic missile.
Photo : Internet
Afghanistan's
women soccer
team players
enter Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD : Members
of Afghanistan's women
soccer team and their
families arrived in Pakistan
after fleeing their country
in the wake of the Taliban's
takeover, local media said
Wednesday.
It was unclear how many
Afghan women players
and their family members
were allowed to enter in
Pakistan.
According to Pakistan's
information minister
Fawad Chaudhry, the
Afghan women soccer
players entered in Pakistan
though the northwestern
Torkham border crossing
holding valid travel
documents.
"We welcome
Afghanistan women
football team," Chaudhry
tweeted, providing no
further details.
However, Pakistan's
English-langue The
DAWN newspaper
Wednesday reported that
the Afghan female
footballers were issued
emergency humanitarian
visas following the Taliban
takeover of Kabul. The
Taliban reportedly don't
want women to participate
in sports.
The Taliban has not
commented, but an official
confirmed that under the
government's interpretation
of Islam, women are not
allowed to play any sports
where they could
potentially be exposed. The
official was not authorized
to speak with media before
any official announcement
by the government.
Last week, the Taliban
announced an all-male
interim government for
Afghanistan stacked with
veterans of their hard-line
rule from the 1990s and
the 20-year battle against
the U.S.-led coalition.
The move seems unlikely
to win the international
support the new leaders
desperately need to avoid
an economic meltdown.
Hurricane battered Louisiana
braces for Nicholas drenching
POINTE-AUX-CHENES : Residents of
southern Louisiana still recovering from
Hurricane Ida just weeks ago were bracing
Wednesday for expected heavy rains as
Nicholas crawls across parts of the state from
Texas. Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane
early Tuesday on the Texas coast, dumping
heavy rain even though it was quickly
downgraded to a tropical storm and later a
depression. But forecasters said Nicholas
could stall over storm-battered Louisiana and
spread life-threatening floods across the Deep
South over the coming days. In a state still
recovering from Category 4 storm Ida weeks
ago - as well as Category 4 Laura a year ago -
Nicholas and its potentially heavy rain bands
were unwelcome news.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned
residents to expect flash flooding and to take
the storm seriously despite its lack of hurricane
status. "This is a very serious storm,
particularly in those areas that were so heavily
impacted by Hurricane Ida," Edwards said.
Galveston, Texas, recorded nearly 14 inches
(35 centimeters) of rain from Nicholas, the
14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic
hurricane season, while Houston reported
more than 6 inches (15 centimeters). The New
Orleans office of the National Weather Service
said late Tuesday that as much as 10 inches (25
centimeters) of rain could fall in parts of
Louisiana, with some areas seeing particularly
intense periods of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8
centimeters) of rainfall per hour.
In the small Louisiana community of Pointeaux-Chenes,
Ida peeled open the tin roof of
Terry and Patti Dardar's home, leaving them
without power and water for more than two
weeks since. Nicholas made the damage that
much worse, soaking the upstairs. But it also
Palestine calls on donor countries
to cover UNRWA's budget deficit
RAMALLAH : Palestine on Tuesday called on donor countries
to cover the deficit in the budget of the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to
continue providing its services.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a
statement that he met with UNRWA Commissioner-General
Philippe Lazzarini in Ramallah and discussed the importance of
helping the UN agency to overcome the deficit in its budget,
reports UNB.
GD-1342/21 (6x4)
provided them with badly needed water, which
their son Terren and grandchildren collected
in jugs and poured into a huge plastic
container through a strainer. From there, a
pump powered by a generator brought the
water inside.
His mom, Patti, said the family didn't have
anywhere else to go after Ida, so members
were doing their best during Nicholas.
"We ain't got no other place," she said. "This
is our home."
Gov. Edwards said Nicholas will complicate
an already difficult recovery from Ida in
southeast Louisiana. He noted that 95,000
electric customers were still without power
more than two weeks after Ida hit. And he said
the new storm could mean some who had
regained power might lose it again. Homes
already badly damaged by Ida were not yet
repaired to the extent that they could
withstand heavy rain, Edwards added.
Energy companies working to restore power
to remaining areas in the state said
Wednesday that they were watching Nicholas
closely but didn't expect it to affect their
restoration times.
A spokesman for Entergy Louisiana said
Nicholas so far has not caused any delays to
previously announced times to restore power.
Crews cannot operate when lightning is within
10 miles (16 kilometers) and can't put bucket
trucks in the air at winds greater than 30 mph
(50 kph), said Jerry Nappi. But once
conditions improve they would quickly resume
work.
Joe Ticheli, manager and CEO of South
Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association,
said he did not anticipate that Nicholas would
significantly slow its work to restore power
after Ida.
Residents of southern Louisiana still recovering from Hurricane Ida just
weeks ago were bracing Wednesday for expected heavy rains as Nicholas
crawls across parts of the state from Texas. Photo : Internet