AYBAK, Afghanistan, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 400 families in Afghanistan's northern Samangan province received assistance from China on Wednesday, provincial government official Wali Mohammad Stanikzai said.

Each family received a 50-kg sack of rice in the provincial capital Aybak city earlier in the day, Stanikzai said.

About 25 million of the 35 million population in the war-torn and cash-stripped country are living in poverty.

To help prevent a possible humanitarian catastrophe, China pledged 250 million yuan (about 37 million dollars) worth of aid to Afghanistan, including food supplies and winter clothes.