Afghanistan is said to be in a dire situation as more than half of Afghanistan is facing starvation along with other issues related to its economy which is why a “humanitarian emergency” was declared by the US government’s SIGAR
More than half of Afghans facing a “tsunami of hunger’
According to the US government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the war-ravaged country is in a deep humanitarian crisis, with more than half of Afghans facing a “tsunami of hunger.” SIGAR released its 44th quarterly report to the US Congress on Thursday, analysing the $148.87 billion Afghanistan reconstruction effort. It declared a “humanitarian emergency” due to the “record” drought, rising food prices, internal displacement, economic breakdown, and collapse of public services.
According to the authority, nearly 19 million Afghans experienced acute food insecurity in “September and October 2021,” citing the findings of Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an organization active under the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Some 22.8 million Afghans will be at potentially life-endangering levels of hunger during this winter, with 8.7 million facing near-famine conditions, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report.
As estimated by the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, 3.2 million Afghan children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition this winter, with one million at risk of dying.
SIGAR cited a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report released in September 2021, which stated that as a result of the worsening political and economic crises, up to 97 percent of Afghanistan’s population was at danger of falling below the poverty line by mid-2022.
The United States is the single largest humanitarian aid donor to Afghanistan
According to the report, the United States is still the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. According to SIGAR, as of January this year, Washington was providing $782 million in humanitarian aid to the war-torn country and Afghan refugees in the region.
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Furthermore, it underscored the UNDP’s findings, stating that restrictions on women’s employment could immediately cost the Afghan economy $1 billion, resulting in a 5% drop in GDP.
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