KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government and the humanitarian community have appealed for 430 million U.S. dollars to help needy people in 2018, the Afghan Chief Executive Office said Tuesday.

"Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah together with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Sunday launched the 2018 humanitarian response plan for ," it said in a statement.

Abdullah was quoted in the statement as saying that the funding was expected to provide food as well as access to health care, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation to an estimated 2.8 million people within the year.

"More than 400,000 people were displaced by fighting and over 700,000 refugees have returned home in 2017, leaving more people in need of humanitarian assistance," he said.

As a least developed country, Afghanistan is hugely dependent on aid.

During an international aid conference in Belgium in 2016, the donor countries pledged more than 15 billion U.S. dollars in development aid for Afghanistan through 2020.