Afghanistan faces severe hunger levels, high levels of food insecurity: Report

Kabul [Afghanistan], December 28 (ANI): Afghanistan is facing severe hunger levels and high levels of food insecurity, according to a report by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), reported TOLO News.

The Observer Research Foundation, an independent global think tank based in Delhi, India, researched the food insecurity section in 136 countries. Afghanistan tops the list from among all South Asian countries.

“According to Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022, South Asian countries reported the highest levels of stunting and wasting. These trends are worrying for a region home to 600 million children and where over 33 per cent of the population faces extreme poverty, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic,” ORF said.

Mohammad Nasir Kazimi, a doctor, as quoted by TOLO News, said “Poor economic and social situation has affected children and has increased food insecurity because it has a direct connection with child nutrition.”

Many parents who took their children for treatment to the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul, said that due to a lack of food and the country’s poor economy, their children are suffering from malnutrition.

“It has been four months that my child has been sick. Doctors said that it is malnutrition and that treatment did not impact it,” said the mother of a malnourished child, according to a report in TOLO News.

The TOLO News report also said: “Some doctors at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital said that at least four children suffering from malnutrition are taken to the hospital every day.”

“From the start of the year, 2.8 million children with moderate and severe malnutrition and nursing mothers were affected,” said Sharafat Zaman Amrkhil, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health under the caretaker Taliban regime.

Recently, the media reported that, amid the snowy season that requires additional funds to warm up living space, Afghan families are forced to sell their belongings in order to make ends meet.

According to Martin Schuepp, Director of Operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an average Afghan family can only afford 82 per cent of basic food commodities, expressing concerns over the economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, reported The Khaama Press.

The ongoing political crisis since the takeover last August has “hit hard” private sectors in Afghanistan, where businesses were halted and put to uncertainty, according to the latest survey conducted by the World Bank.

Due to a shortage in sales, private companies have laid off more than half of their employees on average, a rising concern on the unemployment rate in the country, reported Khaama Press.