The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson last Friday called for a pause in the Western Allies' bombing campaign to allow for safe passage of aid.
Her call could not have come at a better time. When the bombing started Pakistan's General Musharraf was assured the military intervention would be short and sharp. But this week Britain's chief of the defence staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce was telling a very different story. 'We must expect to go through the winter and into next summer at the very least,' he said.
We at Christian Aid loudly applaud the UN Commissioner. Yet, sadly, even if military action were put on pause tomorrow in order to allow aid into Afghanistan, NGOs would still need to step up their activities by almost 200 times to avert the impending humanitarian disaster.
The World Food Programme estimates that a stockpile of 250,000 metric tonnes of food is needed in the country within the next five weeks, when the winter snows will cut off large parts of the country. This is the amount needed to feed people during the five months of bitter winter.
Transporting these vast piles of grain would require 715 trucks full each day over the next five weeks. On some days last week just four trucks were arriving in Afghanistan.
Even if the Western Allies could be persuaded to postpone their military campaign so that aid could get into the country safely, the timing would still be against us. The real problem here is the winter. The maximum the World Food Programme has been able to get into Afghanistan, even without bombing hindering their work, has been 30,000 tonnes a month. Compare this with our first figure of 250,000 tonnes needed in five weeks, and you begin to get some idea of the scale of the looming crisis.
The roads are another problem. Even if enough trucks could be found, the roads are in very poor condition in Afghanistan and it is unlikely they could take that kind of battering.
So what are we saying? Christian Aid is calling on the US and UK governments to pause current military action for at least five or six weeks, until the winter snows commence. This is a minimum. We are also saying that aid corridors need to be established in country. Again, this is essential if the food is to reach its destination in safety.
The Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short said last week that the problem for the humanitarian effort is not lack of money to buy the relief supplies, but rather the lack of transport to deliver them. We know that money is still desperately needed by agencies to fund this delivery process. But we agree that transport and access are the critical priorities. Then on last Friday, the government pledged an additional £15m of Treasury money. We welcome the additional funds, but they cannot solve the underlying problem of how, exactly, we are supposed to get a quarter of a million tonnes of food into Afghanistan?
The crucial - and shocking - bottom line of what we are saying is that it may already be too late to save all Afghans from starvation; from death by drought, cold and disease. Let this be the spur to action to put a halt on the bombing at least for now and optimise this five-week window to save as many lives as is humanly possible.