NEW YORK, Oct 16: At least three million Afghans are in “urgent” need of food and could face famine if they do not get help, the United Nations warned the war torn country Afghanistan.
A dry spell mainly across northern and western Afghanistan has devastated crops, livestock and water supplies, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, reported QNA. UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Toby Lanzer said that the United Nations is spearheading international efforts to reach 2.5 million of the three million in need of food by mid-December.
“Those people are surviving on less than one meal a day and in all likelihood that meal is bread and tea,” Lanzer said adding that the three million people hardest hit were in the “emergency” phase.
The figure was “among the highest in the world” and required “the most urgent response”. “If we don’t reach them there’s a risk that these people go into level five,” Lanzer said. Aid groups distributed basic commodities, including wheat flour fortified with minerals, vegetable oil and lentils, to 600,000 people last month and hope to reach another 600,000 by the end of October.
Another eight million people are in the “crisis” phase three of the food insecurity index, which includes people with food consumption gaps with high or above usual acute malnutrition.
Lanzer said the figures were far worse than we had anticipated and he warned the situation could worsen as temperatures plummet during the winter months. The drought affecting more than half of Afghanistan was triggered by a huge shortfall in snow and rain last winter. Many of the displaced have set up makeshift tents in camps on the edge of urban areas, including the western city of Herat. Even Afghan officials and foreign aid groups are struggling to meet demand for food, shelter and health services.
(UNI)
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