JAKARTA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for the first time in decades is unable to provide effective assistance to millions of Afghans suffering from malnutrition, with death rates, especially among children, expected to rise this winter, the agency said Tuesday.
International aid to war-torn Afghanistan has been significantly reduced since 2021, when US-led forces left the country and the Taliban returned to power. The crisis has been exacerbated by natural disasters such as earthquakes.
"For the first time in decades, WFP is unable to launch a significant winter response, while increasing emergency and nutrition support across the country," the UN agency said in a statement, adding that they needed more than 460 million US dollars to provide food assistance to six million of the most vulnerable Afghans.
"With child malnutrition already at its highest level in decades, and unprecedented reductions in (international) funding for the institutions that provide vital services, access to treatment is becoming increasingly scarce," he said.
The report further said the child mortality rate is likely to rise during Afghanistan's freezing winter months when food is most scarce.
The WFP estimates 17 million people are facing starvation, up about three million from a year ago, an increase partly driven by millions of Afghans deported from neighboring Iran and Pakistan under programs to repatriate migrants and refugees.
Humanitarian agencies have warned that Afghanistan lacks the infrastructure to accommodate the sudden influx of refugees.
"We only get 12 percent of the funding. This is a barrier," said WFP Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Jean-Martin Bauer at a press conference in Geneva.
He added that around 3.7 million Afghan children were suffering from acute malnutrition, one million of which were severe cases.
"So yes, children are dying," he said.
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