Deepening Desperation: WFP Warns Afghanistan’s Hunger Crisis Will Intensify as Winter Looms

KABUL – Afghanistan is grappling with one of the world’s most severe hunger crises, and the World Food Programme (WFP) issued a stark warning on Tuesday that conditions are set to deteriorate dramatically with the onset of winter. A perfect storm of economic collapse, climate-related disasters, and crippling funding cuts is pushing millions of vulnerable Afghans to the brink of starvation.

The situation is rapidly escalating, with hunger spreading across both urban and rural areas. The agency reports a sharp increase in acute malnutrition among women and children, a demographic that bears the brunt of food insecurity. An estimated five million mothers and children are currently malnourished, a figure that is expected to climb as temperatures drop, isolating communities and halting livelihoods.

A Crisis Measured in Seconds and Heartbreaking Choices

The statistics paint a picture of a nation in deep distress. According to the WFP, a child in Afghanistan becomes malnourished every ten seconds. For many families, the concept of three meals a day is a distant memory. In provinces like Helmand, where food insecurity is most acute, parents face impossible decisions daily.

“We have met fathers and mothers who are forced to choose which of their children will eat that day,” a WFP field officer reported from southern Afghanistan. “They are selling their last possessions, taking on crippling debt, and resorting to extreme coping mechanisms just to put a piece of bread on the floor.”

Funding Cuts Sever a Critical Lifeline

The crisis has been severely exacerbated by a devastating 40% reduction in funding for food aid this year. This financial shortfall has had an immediate and catastrophic impact on the ground. Since October, the WFP has been forced to slash the number of Afghans receiving life-saving assistance from 14% of the population to a mere 1%.

“Just as needs are reaching their peak, our resources are evaporating,” said a WFP spokesperson. “The families we are now having to turn away have no plan B. For them, our assistance was the only thing standing between them and starvation.”

A Converging Storm of Causes

The current emergency is not the result of a single cause, but a convergence of several factors:

• Economic Isolation and Collapse: The freezing of international assets and the breakdown of the banking system following the Taliban takeover have crippled the economy, leading to widespread unemployment and a collapse in purchasing power.

• Recurring Climate Shocks: Successive years of severe drought, followed by devastating flash floods in some regions, have decimated agriculture, a primary source of food and income for most Afghans.

• Global Inflation: Rising global food and fuel prices have made essential goods unaffordable for average families, even where food is available in markets.

Emergency food assistance, funded by a coalition of international partners including the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Canada, the UN Emergency Response Fund, the European Union, and France, remains the sole lifeline for millions of vulnerable households. However, these efforts are now dangerously underfunded.

An Urgent Plea to the International Community

With a harsh Afghan winter just weeks away, the WFP is issuing an urgent plea to the international community. The agency is calling for the immediate restoration and expansion of funding to bridge the gap and pre-position supplies in remote, high-altitude areas that will be cut off by snow.

“Without rapid and sustained support, we will witness a catastrophic loss of life in the coming months,” the WFP warned. “Millions of Afghan women and children are facing life-threatening hunger. We cannot look away. The international community must act now to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale.”

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