Some 22.8 million Afghans, or more than half of the population, will be acutely food insecure this winter, putting the already unstable country in the grip of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, said. notified Monday, October 25 of the UN agencies.
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This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migrating or starving, unless we can step up our aid to save lives,
" said David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP). , in a statement released jointly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Among the world's worst humanitarian disasters
The food crisis in Afghanistan is already more serious than those in Syria or Yemen. Only the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a more desperate situation, UN officials told AFP. “
Afghanistan is now among the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, if not the worst,
” Beasley added. "
The countdown to disaster is on and if we don't act now we will have total disaster on our hands,
" he warned.
Under the combined effects of war, global warming and economic and health crises, more than 50% of the Afghan population will be this winter at levels 3 (food crisis) and 4 (food emergency) of the IPC index (Integrated Framework). Food Safety Classification), developed in collaboration with the UN.
Stage 3 is characterized by severe or unusual acute malnutrition, and stage 4 by very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality.
The last stage (5) is that of famine.
This is the highest figure since the United Nations began analyzing this data in Afghanistan ten years ago.
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According to the WFP, 37% more Afghans have fallen into acute food insecurity compared to April 2021. Among them, 3.2 million children under five will suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year. 'year.
Afghanistan is devastated by more than four decades of conflict and is suffering the consequences of global warming, which led to severe droughts in 2018 and 2021.
Its economy has stalled since the Taliban took power in August, which led the international community to freeze the aid on which it relied heavily.
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