Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan face hunger and poverty. The country is suffering from repeated floods and earthquakes, a decline in humanitarian funding and two crises along its borders.
Traffic jams and logistics
For many Afghan schoolchildren, the fortified biscuits distributed by the World Food Program (WFP) are often the most nutritious meal they receive all day. But getting supplies into the country is a logistical minefield.
Take, for example, the 397 metric tons of this key nutrition boost, intended for some 172,000 students, shipped from the port of Surabaya in Indonesia, part of a $3.5 million contribution from the Government of Indonesia to support WFP school meals in Afghanistan.
Supplies are first sent by ship to the port of Karachi in southern Pakistan, but from there things get more complicated.
The original plan was to move the shipment onto trucks for a 7,000 kilometer journey through Pakistan but, amid tensions between the country and Afghanistan, the border was closed.
Hunger can’t wait
A new route needs to be found quickly because, as Corinne Fleischer, WFP Director of Supply Chain and Delivery, says, “hunger does not wait for routes to reopen.”
WFP transport officials are diverting cargo to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, with a plan to ship it across the Persian Gulf to Iran and then move it by road.
Food supplies provided by the UN are unloaded at a warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan.
However, geopolitics strikes again and, as instability spreads across the Middle East, effectively closing the critical Strait of Hormuz since March, the WFP is forced to rethink the plan once again.
Inside WFP’s operations rooms, logistics specialists are going back to basics, examining maps to see if the region’s geography might offer a solution.
They find one: a completely new land corridor from Dubai to landlocked Afghanistan through the Caucasus. It is more expensive, more complex and adds another 8,000 kilometers to the trip, but it is the only option left.
New route, new hope
On an overcast morning, a convoy of 21 trucks roars out of Dubai and heads along the desert roads of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, through Jordan, Syria, Türkiye and Georgia before boarding a ferry in Baku, Azerbaijan, and crossing the Caspian Sea into Turkmenistan.
Days later, the trucks cross into Afghanistan through the remote Torghundi border crossing, before continuing to Kabul. Each country the convoy passes through requires new customs clearance, security assessments, transport permits and coordination across seven borders.
Along the route, truckers face long waits at border crossings, signing documents and sleeping moments under the open sky.
WFP truck in Afghanistan (file)
“I remember the ferry line at the port of Alat (Baku), where hundreds of trucks were waiting to cross; the line was about 30 kilometers long,” says Hüseyin Sarraç Ulus, a Turkish truck driver who made the approximately 3,000-kilometer trip from Dubai to the Caspian Sea.
Working day and night
“We drove about 11 hours a day and slept in the cab of the truck most nights; it wasn’t always comfortable, but we’re used to it,” he recalls. “We ate simple foods like soup, bread, rice and tea. But we felt good. Knowing that the load was helping the children made me feel proud to be part of the journey.”
Inside a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul, Abdul Ahad Monib watches as trucks slowly return to the unloading docks.
“There was a sense of relief when we saw the trucks arrive,” says Mr. Monib, WFP Supply Chain and Delivery Officer. “We closely follow every step of the journey: every delay, every border crossing, every change of plan.
After weeks of travel, the cookies reach the hands of girls and boys in schools in the provinces of Ghor, Nuristan and Paktika, in central, northeastern and eastern Afghanistan, respectively.
“For children, it’s a packet of cookies that helps them stay healthy,” Monib says. “For us, it’s a logistical feat. No one sees the thousands of miles, delays or detours behind every package. But that’s exactly the point: whatever the obstacles, WFP delivers.”
This story was first published on WFP. website.