UN aid convoy reaches Afghanistan through Pakistan border despite closure

More than 700 trucks carrying international humanitarian aid arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan despite a near-total closure of the land border between the two countries following clashes in October, the United Nations said on Sunday.

The convoy was carrying “food and other critical humanitarian items,” Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told reporters.

United Nations Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Mo Yahya said that “seven hundred and twenty-four trucks of humanitarian cargo have crossed into Afghanistan through Torkham, reaching families who need it most”.

He also thanked Islamabad and “all those who made it possible to keep the humanitarian lifeline open”.

Acute child malnutrition has reached critical levels in Afghanistan this year, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in early August.

Following deadly earthquakes last year, several climate-related disasters this year and the return of millions of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan since 2023, nearly 14 million Afghans are facing acute hunger, according to WFP.