17 million Afghans face severe food insecurity this winter

According to the World Food Programme, the rate of child malnutrition is also expected to rise, affecting nearly four million children next year. With child malnutrition at its highest levels in decades, and an unprecedented decline in funding for agencies providing essential services, access to treatment is becoming increasingly scarce. If malnutrition in children is not treated, it threatens their lives.

Extreme survival measures

John Ayliffe, Director of the World Food Program in Afghanistan, noted that the program had warned for months of clear signs of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, adding: “The latest data confirms our worst fears.”.

Ayliffe said: “Our teams are seeing families skipping meals for days on end and resorting to extreme measures to stay alive. Child deaths are on the rise, and are likely to get worse in the coming months.”.

The program explained that all major indicators point to a harsh winter season awaiting the most vulnerable Afghan families, as well as a combination of multiple crises, including drought, job losses, a weak economy, and recent earthquakes.

Bringing Afghanistan back to the forefront

As the crisis worsens, the amount of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan is shrinking, leaving millions of people without the support that has historically reduced severe hunger and malnutrition.

The Director of the World Food Program in Afghanistan said: “We need to bring the Afghanistan crisis back to the forefront of the news to give the most vulnerable Afghans the attention they deserve.”.

The World Food Program said that for the first time in decades, it cannot launch a major winter response, while expanding emergency and nutritional support across the country, noting that it urgently needs 468 million US dollars to provide life-saving food assistance to six million of the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan.