For two weeks now these deliveries have been keeping the bakeries of Kabul open. In the last four days, the Soviets say they've flown in 3,000 tons of flour, their immediate target 12,000 tons. The airlift of Russian troops out of Afghanistan is expected to be completed by the end of the week. They leave behind a city effectively under siege. The daily food queues testify to the effectiveness of the rebel blockade of Kabul.
Children wait for hours in the freezing early morning to buy bread for their families.
The crisis in Kabul is shockingly illustrated in the malnutrition unit of the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital. The irony is there is food on sale in the Kabul bazaar, but shortages have forced prices up beyond the reach of the poor. Meat is available but at black market prices three times what they were last year. This is one of President Najibullah's answers to the Russian withdrawal and the gaps it leaves in Kabul's defenses. Female party members have been encouraged to join neighborhood militia movements.