NEW YORK: The World Food Programme (WFP) announced Friday that scarcity of funds has forced it to carry out cuts to life-saving assistance in March for as many as 4 million people.
The UN agency appealed for immediate funding for its operations in Afghanistan, where people are battling crisis after crisis, including rising hunger, since the Afghan Taliban takeover in 2021. WFP said that disastrous hunger could become widespread in Afghanistan, and unless humanitarian assistance is sustained, hundreds of thousands of people will need support to survive.
WFP requires $ 93 million to support 13 million people
Due to funding restraints, at least four million people will obtain just half of what they need to get by in March, WFP said. The UN food agency urgently requires $ 93 million to support 13 million people in April and $800 million for the next six months. Afghanistan is at the highest risk of starvation in a quarter of a century, with half of the people living in crisis-coping mode to survive while WFP’s food programme is the last “lifeline” for millions in the war-hit country.
WFP said that since August 2022, 9 out of 10 Afghan families cannot afford food – the highest in the world. About 20 million citizens in Afghanistan do not know where their next food will come from, and 6 million of them are just one step away from starvation.
Levels of moderate acute famine are the highest ever recorded in Afghanistan, the UN added. Two-thirds of the population – over 28 million people – require humanitarian support in 2023, almost triple that in 2021.
