India dispatches first wheat aid shipment to Afghanistan as poverty worsens

India on Tuesday dispatched the first in a series of aid shipments containing wheat to Afghanistan as the country faces poverty and hunger since the takeover by the Taliban last year.

The first convoy of 50 trucks carrying 2,500 metric tons of wheat left the north Indian city of Amritsar after a ceremony attended by India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“India remains committed to its special relationship with the people of Afghanistan,” the statement said.

In total, India plans to send 50,000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan on an infrequently used land route through Pakistan.

Permission for such a convoy is rare, with Pakistan having barred the entry of goods from India for years as the relationship between the two nuclear-armed nations has deteriorated.

Since the United States froze Afghanistan’s dollar-denominated assets, the Taliban-led administration has been using wheat as payment for thousands of government workers, mostly laborers, as the country’s financial crisis intensifies.