Conflicts & War

1 million Afghan children face death due to ‘acute malnutrition,’ says Unicef

New Delhi, Aug 23 (EFE).- An estimated one million kids in Afghanistan face death due to “severe acute malnutrition” this year, Unicef warned Monday.

UN’s children’s agency Executive Director Henrietta Fore said around 10 million children in the war-ravaged country needed humanitarian assistance to survive.

Fore said, in a statement, that an estimated 1 million children “projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition…could die without treatment.”

In addition, “4.2 million children are out of school, including more than 2.2 million girls,” she said.

The UN agency said the world body had documented over 2,000 grave child rights violations since January as approximately 435,000 children and women had fled their homes due to the heightened violence.

“This is the grim reality facing Afghan children and it remains so regardless of ongoing political developments and changes in government,” Fore said.

She said the UN agency was scaling up its lifesaving programs for children and women, including health, nutrition, and water services to displaced families.

“We urge the Taliban and other parties to ensure that Unicef and our humanitarian partners have safe, timely and unfettered access to reach children in need wherever they are.”

In another statement, Unicef and the UN health agency said humanitarian needs in Afghanistan were increasing even as the abilities to respond to those needs were “rapidly declining.”

The two UN agencies called for immediate and unimpeded access to deliver medicines and other lifesaving supplies to millions of people in need of aid, including 300,000 people displaced in the last two months alone.

“While the main focus over the past days has been major air operations for the evacuation of internationals and vulnerable Afghans, the massive humanitarian needs facing the majority of the population should not – and cannot – be neglected.”

They said that with no commercial aircraft currently permitted to land in Kabul, the UN agencies had no way to get supplies into the country and those in need.

“WHO and UNICEF call for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian airbridge for the sustained and unimpeded delivery of aid into Afghanistan.”

They said conflict, displacement, drought, and the Covid-19 pandemic had contributed to a complex and desperate situation in Afghanistan.

“Humanitarian agencies need to be supported and facilitated to meet the enormous and growing needs in Afghanistan, and make sure that no one dies unnecessarily due to lack of access to aid.” EFE

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