Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghans Going Into Winter Without Basic Necessities

Aired November 29, 2001 - 06:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Afghans who have remained in their homes, those who have migrated to refugee camps, they share one thing in common, that is the need for food and other basic necessities. But the aid agencies are scrambling to help. They face security problems. Also, there is that winter deadline.

We have two reports on the aid crisis, and we start with CNN's Harris Whitbeck, who is in Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two bags of charcoal, five woolen sweaters, blankets, plastic sheeting, a stove, pots and pans; 10,000 families around Kabul getting help to cope with winter, a winter the U.N. High Commission for Refugees says will be especially harsh.

DANIEL ANDERS, UNHCR: Afghanistan has not received aid for quite some time during the last three months, and people did not manage to prepare for the winter properly.

WHITBECK: Aid agencies now are scrambling to get help to those who need it most, among them, Zaimeda (ph), mother of five children. She is living in a borrowed room after her house and fields were burned during fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.

"This is the first aid we have gotten in five years," she says. "We need to feed our children."

Her children helping her, she carries the precious goods into their room on the outskirts of Kabul.

(on camera): Getting blankets and cooking utensils is one thing, but finding the food to cook is a different story.

(voice-over): Zaimeda (ph) says she needs rice and flour to feed her children. The U.N. says its World Food Program has the food to deliver, but still can't get it to those who need it, because of the lack of security and political instability.

ANDERS: What is at times difficult is when you don't have access to people, and I think that is the most challenging situation. We have relief items for about 500,000 people in stock, and we can bring them here any moment. And -- but it is not always possible to get to the people.

WHITBECK: Winter's approach, one more reason the people here hope Afghan leaders meeting in Bonn will be able to quickly hammer out their differences.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands more refugees have arrived in the past few days, in a desperate search for food. Many camped out in the open on the fringes of the camp, which already houses hundreds of thousands of refugees.

"We have come here, because we don't have anything to eat. We're having a hard time here, our children are in danger," says this man.

They have come from neighboring provinces, victims of four years of the severe drought. The U.S.-led military campaign in the past two months has meant that little aid has been distributed in the provinces.

They say no one has come to their help here. No one has been to register them, which will entitle them to receive aid. They say every night, a few babies and old people, the most vulnerable, die of cold.

This woman says she has already lost a daughter to the cold and hunger. She says she and her children arrived two weeks ago, and are spending the nights sleeping here on the bare ground.

Just a few hundred meters away in a new cemetery, many of the new graves are those of small babies and children.

The small amount of international aid that reaches here, a drop in the bucket. The U.N. and many international aid organizations have been slow in their response. And more people are arriving in the thousands.

This Afghan official says the reason for the new rush of refugees, the arrival of winter, and their need for shelter; also the roads are now open again, after the initial fighting.

(on camera): Far too many people are going hungry, tens of thousands are desperate for help, and the situation can only get worse because there are reports that tens of thousands are on their way here.

Kasra Naji, CNN, Maslakh Camp, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.