500 tons of medical supplies bound to Afghanistan stuck due to Kabul airport restrictions: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Kabul’s airport restrictions have blocked the delivery of over 500 tons of medical supplies, including surgical equipment and severe malnutrition kits, as the United States continues with its messy pullout of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The WHO sounded the warning on Monday, stressing that it is critical that desperately-needed medical and food supplies reach around 300,000 people displaced in Afghanistan over the past two months.

The Taliban group, whose members are largely from the Pashtun ethnicity, finally managed to capture the capital Kabul on August 15, before ousting the former US-backed government and announcing that they sought to form a new “inclusive” government based on their ideology. They are now in control of almost all the country.

For the past two weeks, Kabul’s airport has been the scene of chaos and sporadic violence, with panicked Afghan and foreign nationals desperately trying to catch evacuation flights out of the country, prompting officials there to enforce restrictions.

“While the eyes of the world now are on the people being evacuated and the planes leaving, we need to get supplies in to help those who are left behind,” the WHO regional emergency director Dr. Richard Brennan told Reuters in an emailed statement, adding that the 500 tons of medical supplies were due to be delivered this week.

He noted that almost 18.5 million people – half the population of Afghanistan – rely on aid and it is expected that the current draught further increases the humanitarian needs, but the closure of Kabul’s airport to commercial flights has blocked such deliveries.

Brennan said the WHO is calling for empty aircraft to change their course to the agency’s warehouse in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to gather the supplies on their way to pick up evacuees from Afghanistan.

He also maintained that the organization is planning to establish a “humanitarian air bridge” to send the needed supplies to Afghanistan.

Henrietta Fore, the executive director of the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said on Monday that some 10 million children across Afghanistan are in need of humanitarian assistance.

She further warned that conditions are expected to worsen further in the war-ravaged country.