Afghanistan: Food insecurity affecting 14 million children in country, UN official claims

On Thursday, November 18, Samantha Mort, chief of communication, Advocacy and Civic Engagement, UNICEF Afghanistan, painted a grim picture of the war-torn country claiming that around 22.8 million people are facing food insecurity and are unable to obtain affordable or nutritious food.  

Speaking to UN News, Mort claimed that food insecurity is affecting at least 14 million children in the country, which has a population of 38 million people.

"In Afghanistan these days, there is no childhood. It's all about surviving and getting through the next day," she was quoted as saying by UN News. 

Expressing her concerns about the destitute families, Mort said that people don't get to eat three meals a day and individuals wake up wondering where their next meal will come from. "It's that degree of food insecurity in the country," the UNICEF official told UN News.

She added that drought, a poor harvest, and rising food costs have exacerbated the looming disaster, which she dubbed "the perfect storm in Afghanistan." Mort also predicted that snow will cut off rural communities in the mountains at the start of a bitterly cold winter season. 

'3.2 million children acutely malnourished in Afghanistan': UNICEF official

"UNICEF is extremely worried because there are around 3.2 million children who are acutely malnourished and 1.1 million children who are in danger of dying as a result of severe, acute malnutrition unless treatment is immediately provided to them," Mort lamented.

Last week, the UNICEF official paid a visit to health clinics in the country's western region. At one of the clinics, the doctor shared documents showing a 50% increase in severe malnutrition cases, while another revealed a 30% increase, according to Mort. Despite the substantial increase, Mort noted that the problem did not just begin after the Taliban's takeover in August, but that the country had been plagued by insecurity or conflict for the last 40 years.

UNICEF also predicts that food supplies would run out halfway through the winter due to the drought and low harvest. Meanwhile, the agency is doubling the number of nutrition counsellors and mobile health and nutrition teams that can reach out to children in rural areas in Afghanistan.

According to Mort, nutrition counsellors are frequently recruited locally so that communities can trust them. It's "extremely vital" that the international community recognises that Afghanistan is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, she remarked. "This is not the time for political brinkmanship as people in Afghanistan are dying. It's high time we come forward and provide all kinds of necessary assistance to them," she said, adding that humanitarian aid is the final expression of human solidarity, reported UN News. 

(Image: Twitter/@SamMort/ANI)