ISLAMABAD – United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley on Thursday lauded Pakistan’s support for repairing its damaged planes returning from Kabul and setting up a “humanitarian air bridge” to evacuate people from Afghanistan.
The WFP chief shared a video on Twitter and wrote, “Our damaged planes from Kabul have been repaired, and the WFP is now ready to establish a humanitarian air bridge between Islamabad-Kabul and other destinations in Afghanistan”.
“This will allow us to scale up to meet the needs of the Afghan people,” he said.
In the video, Beasley appreciated Pakistani government, saying it “really helped” the WFP with repairing the aircrafts damaged in Kabul so that they could be used again.
Pointing to a passenger jet, he said: “We are about to do a test flight from Islamabad to Kabul that will be an air bridge, which hopefully goes well.”
#NEWS: Our damaged planes from #Kabul have been repaired, and @WFP is now ready to establish a humanitarian air bridge between Islamabad-Kabul & other destinations in #Afghanistan. This will allow us to scale up to meet the needs of the Afghan people. Thank you, @GovtofPakistan. pic.twitter.com/3MBgzDv493
— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) August 25, 2021
Beasley said that the WFP was helping to evacuate UN personnel, and other humanitarian workers from Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
“With all the devastation inside Afghanistan, we want to do what we can to bring life back to normal and give hope to people in desperation right now,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the WFP chief met Prime Minister Imran Khan. The premier appreciated the role of WFP as the leading international humanitarian organization (IHO) for delivering food assistance in emergencies and for working with nations worldwide to improve nutrition and build resilience.
He said that formation of an inclusive Afghan government and positive engagement of international community with Afghanistan is the way forward to avert any humanitarian crisis and secure peace and stability in Afghanistan.
He underlined that Pakistan has been a beneficiary of various WFP projects that are being implemented in the country and values its partnership with the organization.
Executive Director Beasley expressed gratitude to Pakistan for its role in facilitating the work of the World Food Program in providing food assistance to the Afghans. He also discussed with the Prime Minister the ways of facilitating the continued provision of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.
