Iran sends humanitarian aid to Afghanistan’s Balkhab district

Iran has sent humanitarian aid to families in need in Afghanistan’s remote Balkhab district in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol amid clashes between the Taliban and locals over cash-rich coal mines in the region.

On Friday, food packages consisting of flour, oil, rice and sugar were dispatched to the displaced people in Balkhab.

Iran's Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan Hassan Mortazavi has previously announced that the Islamic Republic intends to send food aid to 500 families in Balkhab district. It will be first dispatch to Afghanistan's capital of Kabul and then transfer to Balkhab.

Over the past several weeks, fighting has been ongoing in Balkhab district, which according to Ministry of Mines and Petroleum spokesperson Mufti Esmatullah Burhan, is home to five operational coal mines as well as to one of the world’s largest copper reserves.

In a daily briefing, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that "at least 27,000 people have been displaced following recent fighting" in the Balkhab district.

"Our partners are preparing to provide food and other supplies to more than 10,000 people in Balkhab. Families have fled to neighboring provinces in the north and to Bamyan Province in the central highlands,” it added.

Iran’s special representative for Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Qomi late last month warned that the clashes in Balkhab district are part of an American plot aims to fan the flames of dispute among ethnic groups.

In a post on his Twitter account, Kazemi Qomi said the US aims to cause chaos in Afghanistan to as part of a “preliminary American sedition”.

SS