Indonesia Sends 30 Tons of Rice to Afghanistan

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Indonesian Government aid transported by Garuda Indonesia aircraft, Sunday (9/1/2022), arrived at Hamid Karzai Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Two flights operated by Garuda Indonesia carrying food aid for the Afghan people arrived from Jakarta at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, at 10 a.m. local time on Sunday (9/1/2022). The Indonesian government sent the food aid in cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP) to help the Afghan people, who have been hit by famine as a result of crop failures and political conflict in the country.

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“We are currently still busy sorting the aid. We will later coordinate with the WFP to distribute the food. Most likely, there will be representatives from the Indonesian mission who will also [be deployed] in the field," said the head of the Indonesian Humanitarian Mission in Afghanistan, Budi Suryasaputra, when contacted in Kabul by phone at 13:58 p.m.

Budi explained that the aid consisted of 30 tons of rice and 31 tons of cooking oil. The commodities complied with the WFP standard on food aid provisions for disasters. The food aid would be distributed to 17,000 Afghans. However, he declined to disclose details on the location and method of distribution.

“The mission’s [food] aid is in accordance with the WFP's needs, namely food. We have not received any information on the need for medicines,” said Budi.

The mission had been previously moved to Islamabad, Pakistan, for security reasons after the Taliban took over the Afghan government.

The team from Indonesian Humanitarian Mission in Afghanistan, which is under the supervision of the Foreign Ministry, consists of eight people. The team has been in Afghanistan for five months. The mission had been previously moved to Islamabad, Pakistan, for security reasons after the Taliban took over the Afghan government. The mission returned to Kabul on 27 Dec. 2021.

"Indeed, diplomatically, Indonesia has not yet established any ties with the Taliban authorities. However, Indonesia's current focus is to be ready to help the Afghan people," said Budi.

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Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

The humanitarian aid was sent to Afghanistan in an official ceremony at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 4 a.m. the Western Indonesia Time that was attended by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. The flight took eight hours to arrive in Kabul.

According to Retno, 23 million people in that country, or more than half of the Afghan population, are threatened with starvation. There are 3 million children in Afghanistan who are at risk of acute malnutrition.

"This is part of a series of Indonesia’s assistance for Afghanistan," she said.

Retno said earlier in her 2022 annual press statement that the Indonesian government and the Qatari government had promised to provide scholarships to Afghan women to help them get a proper education. The pledge was made at an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the situation in Afghanistan that Indonesia had initiated.

Indonesia is also continuing to encourage the Taliban to fulfill their promise to establish an inclusive government.

In an exclusive interview with Kompas in October 2021, the UNICEF communications specialist in Afghanistan, Salam Al Janabi, explained that the humanitarian crisis in the country did not occur after the regime change in August 2021. A long time before that event, at least 10 million Afghan children already needed help and half the population had been on the verge of starvation.

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The UNICEF communications specialist in Afghanistan, Salam Al Janabi.

"As of June 2021, 80 percent of Afghans were already facing food shortages because of prolonged drought over the last three years. There are so many people who have been forced to leave their hometowns and facing difficulties in finding food," he said.

(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi)