The United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-gees (UNHCR) on Friday launched a global fundraising winter campaign to help forci-bly displace families to avert a “crisis of hunger and starva-tion” in Afghanistan as the cold winter sets in.
UNHCR spokesperson Barbar Baluch speaking in Geneva described the situation of the displaced people inside Af-ghanistan as a crisis of hun-ger and starvation. “It’s a cri-sis of hunger and starvation. People don’t have enough to eat, and it’s very visible,” he said.
UNHCR said 3.5 million peo-ple have been displaced in-side Afghanistan due to con-flict, of whom 700,000 were displaced in 2021. According to UNHCR, these families do not have insulated shelters, warm clothes, sufficient food, fuel for heating, and medical supplies, with temperatures “expected to drop to minus 25 Celsius.”
“Hunger in the country has reached truly unprecedented levels. Nearly 23 million peo-ple, that’s 55 percent of the population (who) are facing extreme levels of hunger, and nearly nine million of them are at risk of famine.—Agencies