UN: 6m people in Afghanistan face risk of famine

The UN has warned all member states that two thirds of Afghans are facing severe hunger and are in urgent need of aid. The intergovernmental organisation warned that six million people in Afghanistan face the risk of famine.

Four decades of war, natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic have entrenched the need for humanitarian assistance. In the summer of 2021, a national drought was declared, a year later floods and an earthquake hit the country, and the change of regime sent the humanitarian situation in the country spiralling.

This has been exacerbated by the worst winter the country has faced in 15 years, as well as a lack of food and fuel. Displaced persons in camps on the outskirts of Kabul endure temperatures of minus 18 degrees, Middle East Monitor says.

In one hospital in Kabul, there is an increase of 800 patients a day, many of them are children with Severe Acute Malnutrition because their parents cannot afford to feed them. The World Food Programme has said that 90 per cent of people in Afghanistan face insufficient food consumption.

Citing the UN World Food Program, Vestnik Kavkaza earlier wrote that half a million Armenians suffer from malnutrition, and last year more than 1,1 billion people in Asia did not have access to sufficient food over the past year due to the pandemic, conflicts and climate change that have exacerbated the crisis in one of the most densely populated regions in the world.