Malnutrition rates in Afghanistan have reached record highs with half the country enduring severe hunger throughout the year, a spokesman for the World Food Program said Thursday.
“Half of Afghanistan endures severe hunger throughout the year, regardless of the season, and malnutrition rates are at a record high for Afghanistan,” said Phillipe Kropf, a spokesman for WFP in Kabul, the Associated Press reported.
“There are four million children (under the age of 5) and mothers who are malnourished, in a country with a population of 40 million.
Kropf said Afghans are not starving to death, but they have no resources left to stave off the humanitarian crisis.
Aid agencies have been providing food, education and healthcare support to Afghans, including heating, cash for fuel and warm clothes. But distribution has been severely impacted by an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) order banning women from working at national and international nongovernmental organizations.
“The ban has come at the worst possible moment,” said Kropf. “Families and communities don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”
The WFP scaled up its delivery and distribution of aid in anticipation of a tough winter before the ban came in, planning to reach 15 million this month with emergency food assistance and nutrition support. While it is not directly affected by the ban, 19 of its NGO partners suspended operations in Afghanistan following the Dec. 24 edict.
The highest-ranking woman at the UN Amina Mohammed said Wednesday she used everything in her “toolbox” during meetings with IEA ministers in Afghanistan to try to reverse their crackdown on women and girls.
On Thursday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, on rising malnutrition rates in Afghanistan, said: “It’s yet another sign of the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan we’re seeing in the midst of particularly harsh winter conditions.”—Ariana news
