‘Children are going to die’, U.N. agency warns as Afghanistan verges on collapse

DUBAI, Oct.25 (Reuters) – Millions of Afghans, including children, could starve to death unless urgent action is taken to free Afghanistan from the brink of collapse, a senior United Nations official warned, calling for frozen funds to be released for humanitarian aid Purposes efforts.

World Food Program (WFP) executive director David Beasley told Reuters that 22.8 million people – more than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million population – are facing acute food insecurity and “starving marches,” compared to 14 million two months ago .

“Children will die. People will starve. It will be much worse,” he said in Dubai.

“I don’t know how you fail to have millions of people, and children in particular, dying at the rate we have from lack of funds and the collapse of the economy.”

Afghanistan was plunged into crisis in August after Taliban militants ousted a West-backed government, causing donors to withhold billions of dollars in aid to the aid-dependent economy.

The food crisis, aggravated by climate change, was dire in Afghanistan even before the Taliban came to power, whose new government has denied access to assets abroad while nations grapple with the hard-line Islamists.

“What we forecast is coming true much faster than we expected. Kabul has fallen faster than anyone expected and the economy is falling faster,” said Beasley.

He said dollars earmarked for development aid should be used for humanitarian aid, which some nations have already done, or frozen funds should be channeled through the agency.

“You have to thaw this money so that people can survive.”

The UN Food Agency will need up to $ 220 million a month to partially feed the nearly 23 million people at risk when winter approaches.

Many Afghans are selling their property to buy food while the Taliban cannot pay wages to civil servants, and urban communities are faced with food insecurity similar to rural areas for the first time.

The WFP tapped its own resources to meet food aid through December after some donors failed to deliver on pledges, Beasley said, adding that funds may need to be diverted from aid efforts in other countries due to the depleted state funds.

Aid agencies urge countries worried about human rights under the Taliban to join forces with the new rulers to prevent what they say could spark a migration crisis similar to the 2015 exodus from Syria that shook Europe.

“I don’t think the world’s leaders know what to expect,” he said, listing several humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Africa and Central America.

Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

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