LOC15:56
12:56 GMT
GENEVA, Dec 16 (KUNA) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that more than 17 million Afghans are currently facing acute food insecurity an increase of three million people compared to last year.
Speaking online from Rome during a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, WFP Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Jean-Martin Bauer said that child malnutrition is projected to rise in the coming year threatening nearly four million children according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report.
Bauer explained that Afghanistan is currently recording 3.7 million children suffering from acute malnutrition including nearly one million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition who are in urgent need of immediate hospital treatment.
He noted that unprecedented cuts in humanitarian funding have led to a significant reduction in essential services making access to treatment extremely limited and putting lives of many children at risk.
He also explained that the forced return of 2.5 million Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan in addition to the impact of earthquakes and widespread drought worsened the situation in Afghanistan.
He noted that for the first time in decades the UN agency has been unable to launch a large-scale winter response due to severe funding shortfalls.
Bauer called on the international community to take urgent action and to secure 468 million to urgently deliver life-saving food assistance to around six million of Afghanistan's most vulnerable people. (end)
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