The Afghan Taliban government launched a program on Sunday to combat hunger and unemployment, offering thousands of jobs for the unemployed in exchange for wheat.

The main spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said during a press conference in southern Kabul that the program will be rolled out in the main cities and towns of Afghanistan and allow to provide work for about 40,000 people in the capital alone.

"This is an important step to combat unemployment," Mujahid added, adding that those who are employed must "work hard."

Afghanistan, which suffers from poverty, drought, electricity cuts and a disrupted economic system, is now on the verge of a harsh winter.

The Taliban will not pay wages to workers under the food-for-work program, which currently targets the unemployed and most at risk of starvation during the winter.

The two-month program will see the distribution of 11,600 tons of wheat in the capital, of which about 55,000 tons are earmarked for other parts of the country, including Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif.

The task of workers in Kabul will be to dig water channels and build snow-collecting terraces in the hills to combat drought.

Mujahid, accompanied by senior officials, including the Minister of Agriculture Abdul Rahman Rashid and the mayor of Kabul Hamdullah Nomani, inaugurated the project by cutting a floral ribbon and making a small hole during a ceremony in the rural area of Rish Khor of the capital.