More than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million-strong population is facing acute food insecurity and could die of starvation, unless urgent action is taken to pull the country back from the brink of collapse, the World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley told Reuters news agency.
22.8 million Afghan citizens, including children, are “marching to starvation” compared with 14 million just two months ago.
“Children are going to die. People are going to starve. Things are going to get a lot worse,” Beasley said.
Many Afghans are selling possessions to buy food with the Taliban unable to pay wages to civil servants, and urban communities are facing food insecurity on levels similar to rural areas for the first time.
Afghanistan was plunged into crisis in August after Taliban fighters took control over the country, emboldened by the Western withdrawal from Kabul.
The Taliban’s takeover prompted donors to hold back billions of dollars in assistance for the aid-dependent economy, as world leaders grapple with how to deal with the extremist group.
Beasley said dollars earmarked for development assistance should be repurposed for humanitarian aid, which some nations have already done, or frozen funds be channeled through the agency.
“You’ve got to unfreeze these funds so people can survive,” Beasly stressed.
Aid groups are, also, urging countries, concerned about human rights under the Taliban, to engage with the new rulers to prevent a collapse they say could trigger a migration crisis similar to the 2015 immigration wave from Syria that shook Europe.
“I don’t think the leaders in the world realize what is coming their way,” the WFP official said, listing off several humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Africa and Central America.
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