UN's World Food Programme needs $220 million per month to feed 23 million Afghans

To avert the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Tuesday that it would be needing $220 million each month to feed nearly 23 million Afghans. 

As inflation and currency devaluation is creating hindrance to feeding oneself, the United Nations WFP is swiftly stepping up its humanitarian operations in the war-torn nation to aid more people experiencing acute famine by 2022. So far in 2021, the agency has supported 15 million people, including 7 million in November alone, up from 4 million in September, as per a news release by WFP.

WFP Country Director Mary-Ellen McGroarty said, "Afghanistan is facing an avalanche of hunger and destitution the likes of which I have never seen in my twenty-plus years with the World Food Program... We urgently need US$ 220 million a month in 2022 to assist 23 million Afghans,” according to the news release.

She further said that a lot of work has to be done to prevent this crisis from becoming a catastrophe, although she insisted she is happy with what they have achieved so far.

WFP has aided over seven million people in November by delivering more than 50,000 million tons of food, which is nearly double the amount sent in September, according to the release. 

Furthermore, WFP is aiming to provide nourishment as well as treat and prevent malnutrition in nearly 1.6 million children, as well as pregnant and nursing women. For 1 million children across the nation, the World Food Programme is working to offer school meals, take-home food supplies, as well as cash transfers. 

Food crisis in Afghanistan

In addition to this, UN WFP began prepositioning food in critical sites in the northeastern and central highlands of the nation, where harsh winter snows might cut people off from receiving aid, according to the release. Amid the humanitarian crisis, 9 out of 10 families are buying less priced foodstuffs, 8 out of 10 are consuming less, while, 7 out of 10 are borrowing food to survive.

As per the most recent WFP phone surveys, approximately 98% of Afghans are eating insufficiently, which nearly increased by 17% since the Taliban took control in August. The people of Afghanistan are barely coping with the escalating economic crises, violence, and drought, the release reported. 

(Image: Twitter/ @WFP_Afghanistan/ AP)