Taliban-ruled Afghanistan on 'brink of mass starvation' says WFP; calls for urgent aid

As Afghanistan is about to complete four months under the Taliban regime, the war-torn country is on the brink of mass starvation that aid groups have warned might kill a million children amid the freezing temperatures this season. In the latest report released by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the agencies presented that the food crisis in Afghanistan has reached an unprecedented level as nearly 19 million people are highly food insecure due to prolonged drought, conflict and economic collapse. Although malnutrition has remained a constant problem in the war-torn country for decades, it has reached potential life-threatening levels after the Taliban took over Kabul following the hasty withdrawal of US-led coalition forces.

While the drop to harrowing levels is mostly due to the cash-strapped economy, experts have also believed that the overnight seizure or billion sir dollars or foreign aid have also fuelled the paralysing of the Afghan economy further impeding relief work in the country, New York Times reported. The lack of jobs and limited availability of cash has also created a "new class of hungry" as urban residents have also begun to face hunger crisis for the first time, WFP chief David Beasley said after returning from Kabul recently.

"What’s happening in Afghanistan is just horrific. I met families with no jobs, no cash and no food, mothers who sold one child to feed another, and the lucky children who made it to the hospital," Beasley .

According to the WFP report, an estimated 6.8 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 11.9 million people in crisis (IPC Phase 3) require urgent action to save their lives, reduce food gaps and protect their livelihoods. Additionally, in a report produced by the UN earlier, wheat harvest this year is expected to remain 25% below the average level. Compounding worries of skyrocketing food prices, drought, failing health care system have pushed children and pregnant mothers, suffering from malnourishment, to flood hospital wards.

'Tsunami of hunger'

Now, as with the winter already set in, humanitarian groups have raised caution that millions of children could die as the international community continues to maintain economic restrictions, citing the illegitimacy of the Taliban government. "People are being pushed to the brink of survival. Jobs are being lost, food prices are going up, fuel prices are going up, and people just can’t feed themselves.” WFP’s Country Director, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, described while speaking to CNN.

According to The Nutrition Cluster estimates that 27 out of 34 provinces are above the emergency threshold for acute malnutrition. At least 3.9 million people need acute malnutrition treatment services in 2021, including one million children under five with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), 2.2 million children under five with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), and 0.7 million pregnant and lactating women (PLW) with acute malnutrition, WFP report mentioned.

“We need to separate the politics from the humanitarian imperative. millions of women, children, of men in the current crisis in Afghanistan are innocent people who are being condemned to a winter of absolute desperation and potentially death," the World Food Program’s country director for Afghanistan, Mary-Ellen McGroarty said, as quoted by NY Times.

Lastly, it is pertinent to mention that the hasty political transition in August 2021 followed by significant disruptions in public finances, services, and blocked international aid has left an enormous impact on Afghan citizens, particularly women. Meanwhile, as the World Bank board, including the US, allowed some flexibility last week to move $280 million frozen donor funding for World Food Programme and UNICEF, however, the transfer of funds to Afghanistan still remains unclear.

Image: AP