2001 Press Releases

Bush Administration Pledges Further Aid to Afghanistan

Oct. 5, 2001

President George Bush pledged $320 million in additional humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in an October 4 speech delivered at U.S. State Department headquarters. The amount is in addition to $184 million the United States has already contributed to the Central Asian nation this year, according to a White House fact sheet, making the United States the leading donor in the international community.

"America will contribute an additional $320 million in humanitarian assistance for Afghans for more food, more medicine, to help the innocent people of Afghanistan deal with the coming winter," Bush said.

In a State Department briefing following the president's announcement, U.S. officials said the primary objective of the aid program will be to save lives, threatened by famine and the onset of winter. Food supplies in the country are now so depleted that 30 percent of the population could die over the next year without international aid, according to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Under Secretary for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky said the aid package is designed to address "desperate" conditions in the country. "Where the Taliban has failed its own people, we have consistently sought to ameliorate the conditions of the Afghans."

Natsios said the United States has been a partner in an international relief effort that has been delivering 20-30 tons of food a month to Afghans. As conditions continue to deteriorate, almost double that amount will be necessary to supply the people and stave off widespread famine deaths, he predicted.

The international community accelerated the movement of food commodities toward Afghanistan in the weeks prior to the October 4 announcement. Natsios said 200,000 tons of supplies are currently moving through a "food pipeline of considerable size."

Natsios described a plan for delivery of the aid that he said will avoid diversion or theft of the commodities. Supplies will move into Afghanistan from bases to be established in all of the six bordering nations. Free distribution of food is planned for countryside villages, in conjunction with a food-for-work scheme, which will direct the efforts of the able-bodied into community development projects.