The United Nations has dispatched the first shipment of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan from neighboring Uzbekistan.
Officials say the office of the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees in the Uzbek border town of Termez sent (today / Wednesday) a boat load of supplies to northern Afghanistan across the Oxus River (Amu Darya).
Officials say the supplies are to be distributed among the most vulnerable and needy people.
The U-N refugee agency estimates that nearly three-and-a-half million people - about half the population of northern Afghanistan - are dependent on aid for survival.
Until now, aid agencies were depending on the neighboring country of Turkmenistan for supplies to Afghanistan's northern region battered by years of civil war and drought.