Nearly four months after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, this war-torn country is on the verge of massive starvation, as more than half of the population faces severe hunger in the cold. The United Nations World Food Program stated in a report that since the Taliban overthrew a Western-backed government and took control of the country, the Afghan economy has been in a state of free fall.

According to the United Nations agency, the economic crisis and the limited supply of cash have created a new hungry class as urban residents face food insecurity similar to rural communities for the first time. David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program who recently visited Afghanistan, said his team is “a race against time” to avoid a humanitarian disaster in the country.

“What happened in Afghanistan is simply terrible,” Beasley said. “I met families without jobs, no cash, no food, mothers who sold one child to feed another, and lucky children came to the hospital. When the Afghan people are starving, the world cannot shrink back.” With With the approach of severe winter, humanitarian organizations warned that 1 million children may be killed. The New York Times reported that food insecurity and imminent large-scale hunger could adversely affect the new Taliban government and the United States, which imposed economic restrictions when measuring the actions of the Sunni Pashtun.

Mary-Ellen McGroarty, Country Director of Afghanistan, World Food Program, urged the international community to respond to the “Hunger Tsunami”.

“We need to separate humanitarian necessity from political discussions,” she said. “The innocent people of Afghanistan, children…their lives are not upended because of their own fault, and they cannot be sentenced to hunger and hunger just because of the geopolitical lottery and birth lottery.”

News Source : Hindustan Times