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AFGHANISTAN-DROUGHT
Three million Afghans in ‘urgent’ need of food: UN
KABUL, Oct 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least three million Afghans are in
“urgent” need of food and could face famine if they do not get help, the
United Nations warned Monday, as the war-torn country battles the worst
drought in living memory.
A dry spell mainly across northern and western Afghanistan has devastated
crops, livestock and water supplies, forcing hundreds of thousands of people
from their homes.
The drought comes at a terrible time for the country, which is already
grappling with a 17-year conflict and preparing to hold a parliamentary
election that is three years late.
The United Nations is spearheading international efforts to reach 2.5
million of the three million most in need of food by mid-December, UN
humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Toby Lanzer told AFP.
“Those people are surviving on less than one meal a day and in all
likelihood that meal is bread and tea,” Lanzer said.
Lanzer said the three million people hardest hit were in the “emergency”
phase four of a widely-used food insecurity index — one level below famine.
The figure was “among the highest in the world” and required “the most
urgent response”.
“If we don’t (reach them) there’s a risk that these people go into level
five,” Lanzer said.
Aid groups distributed basic commodities, including wheat flour fortified
with minerals, vegetable oil and lentils, to 600,000 people last month,
Lanzer said.
They hope to reach another 600,000 by the end of October.
Another eight million people were in the “crisis” phase three of the food
insecurity index, which includes people with “food consumption gaps with high
or above usual acute malnutrition”.
Lanzer said the figures were “far worse than we had anticipated” and he
warned the situation could worsen as temperatures plummet during the winter
months.
The drought affecting more than half of Afghanistan was triggered by a huge
shortfall in snow and rain last winter.
Many of the displaced have set up makeshift tents in camps on the edge of
urban areas, including the western city of Herat.
Afghan officials and foreign aid groups are struggling to meet demand for
food, shelter and health services.
People at the camps told AFP in August they had been surviving on a diet of
bread and tea for months because they did not have enough money to buy fruit,
vegetables or meat.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1812 HRS