One third of Afghanistan’s provinces have reached emergency levels of malnutrition among children and the situation is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.
We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis is provoking,” John Aylieff, WFP’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that “it is already too late for too many. Afghanistan is still healing after decades of conflict and turmoil, notably the catastrophic withdrawal of US forces in 2021 as the Taliban gained power.
“More than three-quarters of the country has seen the situation of wasting among children deteriorate this year,” said Olga Cherevko, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office in Afghanistan, quoting nutrition specialists. Children who are suffering from a condition called wasting are severely malnourished, exceedingly thin for their height, and require urgent therapeutic feeding. But “too many children come to health facilities severely malnourished” while others never get there, Cherevko told reporters at UN headquarters via video from Afghanistan, where she has been across the country in recent months and weeks.
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