RASC News Agency: The World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that more than 12 million people in Afghanistan are struggling with uncertainty about their next meal, as severe poverty, widespread unemployment, and economic distress continue to plague the nation. In a post published today Tuesday, September 17, on X, the WFP stated that nearly four million children, infants, and breastfeeding mothers in Afghanistan are currently suffering from malnutrition.
The report underscores that children are not receiving the necessary care due to escalating poverty, food shortages, and rising unemployment. These conditions have resulted in children being deprived of adequate nutrition and access to healthy meals. The WFP has issued an urgent appeal for $677 million to maintain its operations for the next six months. In June of this year, the WFP had similarly warned that a quarter of Afghanistan’s population goes to bed hungry and called for increased funding to assist those in need.
Earlier, in July, the WFP announced that due to a “budget crisis,” it would only be able to provide food assistance to one million people until October. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 23.7 million people in Afghanistan are expected to require humanitarian assistance this year. OCHA had requested $3.06 billion to address the needs of vulnerable populations in Afghanistan but recently revealed that only 25% of the required funds have been secured.
Since the Taliban’s return to power, poverty and unemployment have skyrocketed, with many Afghanistanis attributing the nation’s deepening crisis to the group’s governance.
