Half of Afghanistan’s Toddlers Will Be Undernourished

The United Nations continues to warn of a possible humanitarian crisis. The world body says that half of Afghanistan’s children under five or under five are expected to suffer from severe malnutrition because hunger is entrenched in a country that suffers from serious food shortages.

Deputy Executive Director for the programs of the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Omar Abdi, warned Tuesday, “There will be a humanitarian catastrophe. There are millions of people who will starve”.

At a children’s hospital in Kabul, health workers paced wards full of malnourished and premature babies. In one of the wards, Nargis accompanied his son, 3 years old, who was malnourished. He acknowledged that security improved after the Taliban took power, but unemployment and poverty left many people “unable to even buy a piece of bread”. [ka/lt]