World Food Program appeals for $19 million to provide emergency food in quake-hit Afghanistan

RAHIM FAIEZ

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations’ World Food Program is appealing for $19 million to provide emergency assistance to tens of thousands of people affected by a series of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that has rocked western Afghanistan. Ana Maria Salhuana, deputy country director of the World Food Program in Afghanistan, said it was helping survivors but it urgently needed more funding because “we are having to take this food from an already severely underfunded program.” The group said it is working to provide emergency food assistance to 100,000 people in the region. A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck part of western Afghanistan on Sunday, after thousands of people died and entire villages were flattened by major quakes a week earlier.