London - The scale of the humanitarian crisis facing central Asia became clear yesterday as the World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for urgent food aid to assist around 1 million people facing starvation in Tajikistan.
Like its southern neighbour Afghanistan, Tajikistan has suffered consecutive years of drought and civil war which have devastated harvests and left many with slim prospects of surviving the winter.
The WFP said the food crises in Afghanistan and Tajikistan were both products of a regional problem, but the plight of Tajikistan had not attracted the same level of support as its neighbour.