UN Says 724 Humanitarian Aid Trucks Enter Afghanistan Via Pakistan’s Torkham Border Crossing

The United Nations announced on Sunday that more than 700 trucks loaded with international humanitarian aid reached Afghanistan via Pakistan despite the near-complete closure of the land borders between the two countries since the clashes in October.

Olga Chernykova, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told AFP that the convoy carried “food supplies and other essential humanitarian assistance.”

South China Morning Post

United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan Mohammad Yahya wrote on X that “724 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid crossed into Afghanistan via the Torkham border crossing and reached families most in need.”

The World Food Programme warned in early August that severe acute malnutrition among children in Afghanistan has reached critical levels this year, as the aid flow continued through the Torkham crossing.

Multiple outlets tied the convoy to a specific figure of 724 trucks, with the South China Morning Post reporting that “724 humanitarian trucks enter Afghanistan” after the United Nations said the land border was nearly totally closed following clashes in October.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told reporters that the convoy carried “food and other critical humanitarian items.”

Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat

The World Food Programme warned in early August that nearly 14 million Afghans face acute food insecurity, citing “the devastating aftershocks of last year’s earthquake,” this year’s climate disasters, and the return of millions of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan since 2023.

The South China Morning Post also linked the humanitarian need to acute child malnutrition reaching critical levels in Afghanistan this year, placing the truck arrivals against a backdrop of hunger and malnutrition.

While the UN convoy moved through Pakistan’s border crossings, security sources also described a separate Pakistan-linked operation in Balochistan, saying security forces killed seven “India-backed” terrorists in the Kharan area after intelligence information.

The الشرق الأوسط reported that the seven militants belonged to the Khawarij fitna movement and were killed in the operation, while others were injured, and it said weapons and ammunition were seized from their hideout.

The same report said the militants had planned to carry out extortion and kidnapping operations in addition to targeted assassinations and suicide attacks, framing a security threat alongside the humanitarian logistics.

In parallel, Muhammad Yahya thanked the Pakistani authorities and all those who helped keep the humanitarian lifeline open, as the near-complete closure of land borders since the October clashes had “severely hindered ways of delivering humanitarian aid to Afghanistan,” according to Karl Skau, the WFP Deputy Executive Director.