This week, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) made the announcement that as of September, 10 million Afghans are no longer receiving aid from the agency. This month, they were forced to stop providing food assistance to two million individuals in Afghanistan.
According to a statement released by the World Food Programme (WFP), the organization “will only be able to provide emergency assistance to 3 million people per month going forward due to a massive funding shortfall.”
“We are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their next meal,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, who serves as the Country Director and Representative for the WFP in Afghanistan. “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are forced to choose between the hungry and the starving.”
We are unable to help all of those folks who are on the verge of being completely destitute due to the fact that we only have a limited amount of resources left.
According to the statement, the World Food Programme is frequently the last lifeline for women, who are increasingly being pushed out of society and have dwindling options for generating a living and feeding their children. The World Food Programme is often the only way for these women to feed their children.
According to Lee, who was quoted in the article, “These cuts mean that 1.4 million new and expecting mothers and their children will no longer receive specialized food designed to prevent malnutrition.”
According to the statement, the WFP requires one billion United States dollars during the next six months in order to be able to provide life-saving meals to 21 million people.
According to Lee, “a small window of opportunity remains to avert catastrophe in Afghanistan, but we are running out of time,” but this window of opportunity is closing quickly. “The most vulnerable women and children who are reeling from the effects of 40 years of conflict, a crippled economy, and a worsening climate crisis will pay the price for inaction,” said one expert.
After the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan forced the United States and other countries to freeze an estimated $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that more than 36 million people in Afghanistan, or over 90% of the population, lacked sufficient food as of August 2022.
