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Humanitarian crisis looms

Afghanistan is on the brink of becoming the world’s worst humanitarian crisis the United Nations has warned, as reports emerge of a family of eight orphaned children who recently starved to death.

The unnamed children, all thought to be aged under 10, were found dead in the capital, Kabul, after being left to fend for themselves following the deaths of their mother and father.

These kinds of stories are likely to become more common as more than half the population of Afghanistan are now short of food, and the looming catastrophe will soon eclipse crises in Yemen and Syria, according to the latest assessment by the UN’S food body.

A long-brewing crisis caused by drought, war and poverty has now been accelerated by the Taliban’s shock takeover in August. The militants’ resumption of their Islamic emirate in one of the world’s poorest countries has been accompanied by a suspension of aid and now economic collapse.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates nearly 23 million of the country’s 39 million population are now unable to get regular access to enough food. That figure has risen from 14 million only two months ago.

David Beasley, executive director of WFP, said: ‘‘Children are going to die. People are going to starve. Things are going to get a lot worse.’’ ‘‘I don’t know how you don’t have millions of people, and especially children, dying at the rate we are going with the lack of funding and the collapsing of the economy.’’ Those at risk are estimated to include at least 14 million children.

The eight orphans were found dead around three weeks ago in a neighbourhood of West Kabul, according to local leaders. The family’s father had been bed ridden and suffering from a tumour before dying.

Their mother who had heart disease died soon afterwards, a cleric called Mohammad Ali Bamiani told local media. The children were left alone and relied on occasional bread and water from neighbours, but were found dead by the landlord.

Save the Children, the UK aid charity, said families were taking desperate measures to survive, such as selling meagre possessions to buy food, sending their children to work or getting by on bread alone.

The country’s economy has been largely reliant on aid and government workers have not been paid since Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed. The cost of food staples like oil, wheat and rice have soared by up to 55 per cent in the past year.

Orlaith Minogue, the charity’s senior conflict and humanitarian advocacy adviser, said: ‘‘It seems there is no end to the agony for Afghan children. After decades of war and suffering, they now face the worst hunger crisis in their country’s history.

‘‘The situation is already desperate. We see young children in our clinics every day who are wasted from severe malnutrition because they have nothing but scraps of bread to eat. When winter sets in we’re going to see more children going hungry than ever before.’’

Beasley added: ‘‘Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises, if not the worst. Food security has all but collapsed.

‘‘This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance, and unless the economy can be resuscitated.

‘‘We are on a countdown to catastrophe and if we don’t act now, we will have a total disaster on our hands.’’ – Telegraph Group

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2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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