The UN was forced to cut food assistance to another two million people in Afghanistan, bringing to 10 million the number of people left without support in the country this year.
Due to “a huge funding shortfall”, the World Food Program (WFP) will only be able to provide emergency aid to three million people a month.
“Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are being forced to choose between the hungry and the starving,” forcing millions of families to fight for their next meal,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee. , WFP Director and Representative in Afghanistan “With the few resources we have left, we cannot help all the people who are on the brink of total poverty,” he said in a statement sent to the newsrooms.
Philipe Kropf, WFP’s communications manager in Afghanistan, underlines the same premise and insists that the organization is “forced” to cut funds “due to lack of funds.”
“We do not want to do this. This year we have already left eight million people without assistance and now, in September, we will have to leave two million more. This means that ten million people will not receive the food that could save their lives. , as winter sets in. The impact will be felt by millions of families in the country, who will enter the worst time of the year, not knowing when they will have their next meal and without being able to count on the support of the WFP”, he laments, in statements to He TSF.
In March, the WFP was forced to cut rations from 75% to 50% for communities in Afghanistan facing emergency levels of hunger, and in May it was forced to cut food for eight million people, or the 66% of those who helped.
These reductions mean that 1.4 million pregnant women, new mothers and their children no longer receive food specially designed to prevent malnutrition.
WFP fears that there will be a sharp increase in the number of admissions to nutrition centers in the coming months, as children become increasingly hungry.
Over the next six months, WFP needs US$1 billion (€929.750 million) to help 21 million people with food and nutrition aid, as well as livelihood support. This amount already includes funds to safeguard food for communities that will be cut off during the harsh Afghan winter.
“The biggest issue right now is funding. We need to recognize – and want to recognize – the generosity of all our partners over the last two years, which has allowed us to help a record number of people. In 2022, WFP supported 23 “There are millions of people in all of Afghanistan, that is more than half of the population. Now we ask for international solidarity to continue financing, so that girls and women, boys and men are not abandoned”, warns Philipe Kropf.
The director of the WFP in Afghanistan warns, precisely for this reason, that, without more funds, a “catastrophe” could occur in the country with the arrival of winter.
“There is only a small window of opportunity left to avoid a catastrophe in Afghanistan, but time is running out,” Lee said. “The cost of inaction will be paid by the most vulnerable women and children, bearing the brunt of 40 years of conflict, a weakened economy and a deepening climate crisis.”
The announcement comes ahead of the 78th annual UN General Assembly in New York, where world leaders will meet to discuss major global development challenges, including hunger. As global needs increase, WFP is calling on governments to prioritize funding for humanitarian operations.
WFP is in the midst of a crippling funding crisis that is forcing the organization to cut life-saving assistance at a time when acute hunger is reaching record levels. Nearly half of WFP country operations have already cut – or plan to cut soon – the size and scope of food, cash and nutrition assistance programmes.
“Around the world, more people than ever need humanitarian assistance to survive. In Afghanistan, all humanitarian partners are experiencing the same crisis in terms of lack of funding. But in any humanitarian response, food is at the center of everything because we need to eat every “Everyone has the right to eat every day, from this point of view we hope that our partners manage to mobilize the necessary funds to help people get through the winter”, appeals the head of communication.
WFP had a budget of $14 billion, which was reduced to $10 billion, while needs increased to $23 billion.
Source: TSF
