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WFP: 3 Million Afghan Kids Will Suffer Malnutrition This Year

The organisation stated that since last year, due to a reduction in foreign aid, the number of malnourished children seeking treatment has increased, reports Asian Lite News

The World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan has warned that this year, up to three million children could suffer from malnutrition under the Taliban regime, Khaama Press news agency reported.

The organisation stated that since last year, due to a reduction in foreign aid, the number of malnourished children seeking treatment has increased.

Khaama Press reported, citing Mona Sheikh, Head of Nutrition at the World Food Programme in Afghanistan who said in a video posted on the organisation’s account on its social media platform X, “We will be able to assist about 1.6 million malnourished children.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) previously announced that in 2023, it assisted 715,000 malnourished children in Afghanistan.

According to international organizations, many families in Afghanistan under Taliban control are unable to provide food for their children.

Additionally, reports indicate that since the Taliban took power, Afghanistan has been facing a dire humanitarian crisis, exacerbating the already precarious situation. The lack of stability and access to basic necessities has led to widespread suffering, particularly among vulnerable groups like women and children.

Moreover, the shortfall of funds from international organizations has significantly hindered relief efforts in Afghanistan. This has left millions of people at risk of famine and deprived them of essential humanitarian aid, further worsening the humanitarian situation in the country.

Despite over 450 days passing, universities in Afghanistan remain closed to girls, with no signs of reopening on the horizon, TOLO News reported.

Expressing their frustration, female students highlight the significant delay in their academic progress, urging the Talibani caretaker government to prioritise the reopening of universities this year.

Khadijah, speaking on behalf of many, emphasises, “The education of girls holds immense importance; it reflects the literacy and development of entire families. Neglecting it jeopardises the education and advancement of society as a whole,” as reported by TOLO News.

Echoing these sentiments, Narow pleads, “We implore authorities to unlock the doors of schools and universities for girls, as their education is crucial for building a strong and progressive society.”

Concerns are also voiced by university professors, who fear that the continued closure of universities to girls will hinder the country’s progress. (ANI)

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UAE, WFP Discuss Gaza Relief Efforts

His Highness emphasised the urgent need to secure humanitarian corridors…reports Asian Lite News

President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today received Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), at Qasr Al Shati in Abu Dhabi.

During the meeting, they discussed cooperation and coordination between UAE entities and WFP to deliver relief assistance to the Gaza Strip, given worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians in the area.

His Highness emphasised the urgent need to secure humanitarian corridors, enabling regional and international organizations to fulfill their roles in providing aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The meeting also addressed cooperation between the UAE and WFP in addressing food security challenges and ensuring food provision for those in need in impoverished regions, disaster-affected areas, and zones experiencing conflict and crises regionally and globally.

His Highness stressed the UAE’s commitment to supporting the World Food Programme’s global work as part of the country’s approach towards assisting those in need. He also highlighted the significance of enhancing international humanitarian solidarity when addressing global food crises, given their close link to international peace and security.

The Executive Director of the World Food Programme expressed her appreciation for the impactful and constructive cooperation of the UAE with WFP, particularly in supporting those affected in conflict and disaster zones.

McCain also commended the nation’s pioneering initiatives in addressing global food security challenges and its innovative strategies to promote sustainable food security solutions.

The meeting was attended by Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation.

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WFP warns drought leading to food insecurity in Horn of Africa

It added that the region has recorded a significant increase in the price of local food baskets with Somalia recording the most expensive food basket in the region…reports Asian Lite News

The impact of drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia has led to food insecurity and a high level of acute malnutrition, the UN WFP has warned.

The WFP, in its latest drought response situation report released on Tuesday, said nearly 22 million people are food insecure due to drought across the affected countries.

It further warned that the loss of livestock and reduced productivity has eroded the livelihoods of the affected pastoral communities.

In 2022 alone, at least 9.2 million livestock deaths occurred in the drought-effected areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, according to figures from the WFP.

The WFP, citing the latest IPC Famine Review Committee projections, further warned that famine is likely to occur in three areas in the Bay region in Somalia between October to December.

It added that the drought condition is further deteriorating the already dire humanitarian condition across the region.

“The food insecurity situation in Eastern Africa continues to deteriorate owing to extreme weather conditions, conflict, and macroeconomic challenges (inflation, currency devaluation),” the WFP said.

It added that the region has recorded a significant increase in the price of local food baskets with Somalia recording the most expensive food basket in the region.

Amid the worsening impacts of the ongoing drought, the WFP said it has scaled up response across the Horn of Africa to respond to severe food shortage by providing lifesaving food and nutrition assistance to affected communities.

In Somalia, WFP has more than doubled its life-saving food assistance from 1.7 million people in April 2022 with plans to reach 4.5 million in the coming months, it said.

The WFP is also enabling communities to recover faster and better from the drought by investing in interventions that promote resilience and adaptive capacities of communities to deal with shocks.

It, however, noted that forecasts indicate a potential increase in needs, in which additional funding is needed to sustain and scale up assistance to prevent more dire outcomes.

The WFP said it urgently needs $1.27 billion for all its operations in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia for the period from November 2022 to April 2023.

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WFP calls for urgent funding to support Ethiopia

According to the WFP, severe shortages of water and pasture are devastating livelihoods, forcing families from their homes…reports Asian Lite News

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for urgent funding to avoid a major humanitarian crisis in drought-affected areas of Ethiopia.

The WFP, in its latest Ethiopia Drought Response Situation Report, said over 24 million people are projected to be affected by drought in the country in October, of which at least 9.9 million people need emergency food assistance.

“Immediate and scaled-up assistance is critical to avoid a major humanitarian crisis in the drought-affected areas of Ethiopia and help communities become more resilient to extreme climate shocks,” the WFP said.

The WFP said it “urgently needs” $197 million to provide assistance over the next eight months, responding to the needs of $3.5 million of the most drought-affected people.

According to the WFP, severe shortages of water and pasture are devastating livelihoods, forcing families from their homes.

It said the Somali, Oromia, Sidama, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regions in the south and southeastern parts of Ethiopia have been hit the hardest by the ongoing drought.

While the fifth failed rainy season is projected to take place between October and December this year, at least 3.5 million livestock have already perished and another 25 million are at risk, the WFP said.

“At the same time, 2.2 million children are already acutely malnourished due to the impact of drought — over 760,000 of these children are severely malnourished.”

The WFP is presently supporting families with a combination of emergency relief, nutrition support and resilience-building actions to save lives in the short term and build resilience in the long term.

It, however, noted that due to funding shortfalls, WFP is delivering food assistance to 2.4 million people in the Somali region, even though 3.3 million people are projected to be in need.

The WFP also said it aims to treat 143,000 malnourished children and mothers in the region with specialized nutritious foods.

In the Oromia and SNNP regions, the WFP is delivering specialized nutritious foods to 305,000 mothers and children to address acute malnutrition concerns and providing nutritious school meals to 133,000 children whose families have been affected by the drought, it said.

ALSO READ-WFP: 19 million Afghans face food insecurity

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WFP seeks $418 mn to ramp up aid in Horn of Africa

WFP added that the severe drought across the Horn of Africa is expected to continue in the coming months, with a fifth poor rainy season forecast later this year…reports Asian Lite News

The World Food Programme (WFP) has said that nearly $418 million are urgently needed over the next six months to scale up assistance in the Horn of Africa as levels of hunger soar after back-to-back droughts and the threat of famine looms.

WFP added that the severe drought across the Horn of Africa is expected to continue in the coming months, with a fifth poor rainy season forecast later this year.

“There is still no end in sight to this drought crisis, so we must get the resources needed to save lives and stop people plunging into catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Since the start of the year, nine million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat, the UN agency said.

Beasley on Thursday wrapped up a visit to drought-ravaged Somalia, where more than seven million people — close to half the nation’s population — are acutely food insecure and 213,000 are already facing famine-like conditions.

The Executive Director visited the southern city of Bardhere and met families, including malnourished children and their mothers who were forced to leave their homes and travel long distances through conflict-wracked areas in search of humanitarian assistance.

“People here have been waiting years for rain, but they cannot wait any longer for life-saving food assistance. The world needs to act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of widespread famine in the Horn of Africa,” said Beasley.

WFP said that it’s tripling the number of people reached with life-saving food assistance in the Bardhere area, which hosts thousands of people driven from their homes by drought and conflict.

During the 2016/17 drought in the Horn of Africa, WFP said, a catastrophe was avoided through early action, noting that humanitarian assistance was scaled up before there was widespread hunger, saving lives and averting a devastating famine.

The Executive Director said WFP is targeting 8.5 million people across the Horn of Africa, up from 6.3 million at the start of the year.

WFP at the start of 2022 warned that 13 million people in the Horn of Africa were facing acute food insecurity due to the drought.

By mid-year, with the fourth consecutive failure of rains, that number increased to 20 million and now, the number is projected to rise again to at least 22 million by September.

“This number will continue to climb, and the severity of hunger will deepen if the next rainy season (October to December) fails and the most vulnerable people do not receive humanitarian relief. Needs will remain high into 2023 and famine is now a serious risk, particularly in Somalia,” WFP added.

Famine feared in 8 areas of Somalia

With more than 200,000 people already in catastrophic food insecurity, famine is feared by September in Somalia, a UN spokesman said.

Due to the Horn of Africa drought, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) believes that there will be famine in eight areas of the country within two months, Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying to reporters.

The level of food insecurity has been the worst since 2017 and is not expected to improve for a year.

“Our humanitarian colleagues warn that more than 7 million people are already impacted by the severe drought, up from nearly 6 million in May,” Dujarric said.

“More than 800,000 have left their homes in search of food, water and pasture.”

Antonio welcomes recent establishment of AU transition mission in Somalia

He said that at least 200 children have died of malnutrition and disease since January and an estimated 1.5 million children under the age of 5 face acute malnutrition.

“Late last month, our partners launched the Drought Response and Famine Prevention Plan to provide life-saving assistance and prevent famine in Somalia,” the spokesman said.

“The plan calls for nearly $1 billion to reach 6.4 million people through the end of the year.”

Separately, the Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia, which calls for $1.46 billion to help 5.5 million people, is only 30 per cent funded, he said.

Almost 4 million people have received assistance since January.

“We need greater resources to meet growing needs and avert famine,” Dujarric said.

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WFP in talks with India

The war was expected to add 47 million people to the 276 million who were already facing acute hunger in 81 countries, Husain said…reports Arul Louis

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is in talks with India to procure wheat for countries facing a food crisis because of the disruption of supplies due to the Ukraine war, according to the organisation’s Chief Economist Arif Husain.

“We are in talks with India on procurement of wheat a that is something that is ongoing,” he said on Wednesday during a news conference here to release the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises.

The report gave a bleak picture of the global food situation warning that about 193 million people in 53 countries or territories are facing an acute problem and need urgent assistance.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the foreword to the report, “The war in Ukraine is supercharging a three-dimensional crisis – food, energy and finance – with devastating impacts on the world’s most vulnerable people, countries and economies.”

The war was expected to add 47 million people to the 276 million who were already facing acute hunger in 81 countries, Husain said.

The Ukraine war was pouring “more fuel on a fire that is already burning hot” because of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Asked about the World Trade Organisation’s restrictions on exports by India, Husain referred to a joint statement by the WTO, WFP and other organisations last month that “it is especially important not to impose export restrictions on humanitarian food purchases by the UN’s World Food Program”.

India has a wheat stockpile estimated at about 100 million tonnes, which exceeds the requirements for a safety net.

WTO restricts exports of food procured by governments at support prices limiting wheat exports from India, which is the world’s second-largest producer of wheat after China.

Earlier this year, India began sending wheat to Afghanistan through the WFP overcoming Pakistan’s opposition. India has pledged 10 million tonnes of wheat donations to Afghanistan.

The Global Report on Food Crises added Pakistan to the list of the ten largest food crises replacing Zimbabwe.

The other countries on the list were Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan and Haiti.

In Pakistan, 4.66 million people were in a crisis or worse situation mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh, the report said.

Bangladesh continues to grapple with the economic recovery from the economic impacts of two years of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, the report said.

Bangladesh “is one of the world’s biggest wheat importers, buying around 6 million tonnes annually, chiefly from India, Canada, the Russian and Ukraine, it said.

Husain said the world needs to diversify the sources of food and agricultural inputs to avoid crises caused by overdependence on a few sources.

Russia and Ukraine together account for about 30 per cent of the total global exports of wheat.

Husain said that currently, the world was facing a crisis of accessibility and affordability because of not being able to distribute existing supplies and the increase in costs, but a crisis of supply and affordability was looming because shortages of fertilisers will reduce the amount of foodstuff that will be produced.

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‘Funds running dry’: WFP reveals growing crisis in Afghanistan

As the world’s attention shifts to the conflict and displacement crisis in Ukraine, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) last week had called on the world to not neglect Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News

Underlining the need for more humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations, has once again raised concern about the growing multifold crisis in the country.

“WFP funds are running dry but the economic crisis continues. Nearly no family can access enough to eat and humanitarian needs may reach levels we cannot meet,” World Food Programme (WFP) tweeted.

Margot Van Der Velden, Director of Emergencies, who is working in Kandahar said it is a “very desperate situation that we see here.”

“23 million people in Afghanistan are facing an acute food insecurity situation. As per a January survey, 95 per cent of the household don’t have enough food,” she said.

Doha hosts talks on Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation

As the world’s attention shifts to the conflict and displacement crisis in Ukraine, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) last week had called on the world to not neglect Afghanistan.

The IRC, in a statement, said the international community should seize this window of opportunity in Afghanistan to prevent famine, save lives, and put an end to the horrific conditions facing women and girls,

It called for a scale-up of life-saving humanitarian aid, and policy changes to alleviate the economic crisis that is tipping the scale towards preventable death and suffering.

Amanda Catanzano, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at the IRC, said, “We applaud the recent good work done by the US and other donor governments to alleviate the suffering in Afghanistan. Specifically, the World Bank board’s decision to provide USD 1 billion from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund to UN agencies and aid organizations operating in the country.”

Catanzano said these funds will help restore essential health and education services that have been paralyzed since August when donors froze funds that made up 75 per cent of public spending.

This funding will also help Afghans rebuild their livelihoods at a time of record food insecurity when nearly 9 million Afghans live on the brink of famine, she added. (ANI)

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