AFGHANISTAN NEEDS $185 MILLION TO PREVENT FOOD INSECURITY-RELATED DEATHS: WHO

Thu 21 December 2023:

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that $185 million is required by the UN organization to stop food insecurity-related deaths in Afghanistan.

“WHO needs $185 million to continue providing medicines and supporting hospitals to prevent more Afghan children and women dying of malnutrition and the consequences of food insecurity,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Tedros stressed that 13 million people — 30% of the population — in the country face acute food insecurity, adding close to a million children are severely malnourished and 2.3 million are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition.

With weakened immune systems and approaching “harsh winter,” Tedros said Afghan people are at “higher risk of dying from infectious diseases.”

These numbers are likely to increase in coming weeks and months with limited humanitarian aid delivery, he warned.

Humanitarian situation remains a ‘grave concern’

UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva briefed the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday and said the humanitarian situation remains a grave concern; and that as another winter approaches, more than 20 million people will depend on aid.

She also said key features of the human rights situation in the country are “a record of systemic discrimination against women and girls.”

According to her, there was “repression of political dissent and free speech, a lack of meaningful representation of minorities, and ongoing instances of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and illtreatment.”

She thanked the Security Council for considering the situation in Afghanistan “several times over the past month,” and that “in a world of multiplying crises, I am grateful for this ongoing attention to Afghanistan.

Expulsion of undocumented Afghans

Otunbayeva said she was in Islamabad last week and raised the issue of the expulsion of undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan.

She said Pakistan’s decision has led to a deterioration of relations between the two countries; and that “it is essential that both sides take measures to prevent further deterioration and begin working on issues of common interest.”

According to her, almost 500,000 Afghans have returned home and that “a consortium of humanitarian actors” are working constantly alongside the IEA to provide these families with assistance.

“This has proven to be an effective cooperation and the de facto authorities IIEA) have responded with great professionalism despite lacking resources. The returnees are the poorest of the poor. 80,0000 of them have nowhere in Afghanistan to go. The human rights consequences for women and girls forced to return are particularly severe,” she said.

Otunbayeva also raised the issue of education and said while the international community has called for the ban on girls’ education to be reversed, the overall quality of education had deteriorated.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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