WFP: 14 million people will face food insecurity in Afghanistan

KABUL: The World Food Programme (WFP) warned of the dire state of food insecurity sweeping across Afghanistan as winter approaches fast.

While visiting a food distribution center in Herat province in the west, WFP officials said that at least 14 million people in Afghanistan will face food insecurity and over 3 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. “We have huge concerns about the desperate choices families are being forced to take,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP Afghanistan’s Representative and Country Director. “Unless we intervene now, malnutrition will only become more severe. The international community must release the funds they pledged weeks ago, or the impact could be irreversible.”

It is reported that WFP and UNICEF are distributing food to poor Afghan families in several provinces. A number of families who were benefited by lifesaving food packages talked about their poverty, saying they have not been able to pay for food. Halima, an Afghan woman, told TOLOnews: “This aid is not enough. We are struggling with poverty. I have an infant and came here in the early morning.” Kabul resident Ghulam Mohammad said “we have only one person who is working in our family. The rest are unemployed and it is very challenging.”

The foods includes flour, oil and some other items which are distributed to 1600 families. The WFP has provided lifesaving food and nutrition assistance to around 4 million people in September, the organization claimed. In the meantime, OCHA issued a report saying that UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs in Afghanistan are trying to deliver lifesaving aid to crisis-affected people.

Millions of people in Afghanistan have been deeply affected by decades of conflict and displacement, chronic poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic, a severe drought, a failing health system, and an economy on the brink of collapse.