Afghan authorities continue assisting needy families: Official

New Delhi, Jan 26 (IANS) About 1,000 poor and needy Afghan women received relief assistance in Kabul on Wednesday as the Taliban-led government and aid agencies redoubled efforts to help destitute families in winter, an official said.Some 1,000 women, including dozens of widows, received assistance packages on Wednesday. The women came from 22 municipality districts of Kabul province as they were registered via a transparent process, Abdul Matin Rahimzai, director of provincial Refugees and Repatriations Directorate, Xinhua news agency reported. The assistance supplies were donated by Pakistan and China, according to Rahimzai.Hundreds of thousands of needy families have received humanitarian aid in most of the country's 34 provinces in recent weeks.Rona, a mother of eight, told Xinhua at the site that the families also need firewood and coal after recent snowfalls in most parts of the Asian country."We are thankful to all organisations that provide food and clothes, and we also need firewood or coal during this difficult winter," she said.Economic woes hit the impoverished country following the freezing of over $9 billion of Afghan central bank's assets by the US as well as a halt of funds by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
--IANS int/sks

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