Afghanistan's malnutrition crisis 'spinning out of control': UN

GENEVA: Fueled by drastic aid cuts, child malnutrition is reaching critical levels in Afghanistan, with the number of children being rushed to health centers soaring, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

John Aylieff, the Afghanistan country director for the UN's World Food Program, painted a bleak picture of fully preventable deaths and acutely malnourished children being turned away without assistance.

The country's nutrition crisis "is spinning out of control", he told reporters in Geneva.

"It's a crisis which is getting worse by the day, and tragically one which we are unable to contain," he said, speaking from Kabul.

"Child wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, has reached critical levels in one third of the country's provinces now."

He said conflict, trade disruptions, forced returns from neighboring countries and dramatic aid cuts were driving unprecedented levels of acute malnutrition.

Last year saw the highest year-on-year surge in malnutrition and this year, the situation is "even worse,” he said.

"The number of children being rushed to health centers is soaring" but "too many of them are arriving too late to be saved".

Children aged under two make up 80% of the worst cases.

Aylieff said WFP only had sufficient funds this year to feed just one in seven acutely malnourished women and children.

"We are turning away six out of seven and we're turning them away empty-handed, with absolutely nothing," he said.

"Feeble cries of malnourished babies haunt the health clinics of Afghanistan.

"This crisis could eclipse all previous projections and condemn countless more children and mothers to preventable death."

Instability and funding cuts 

Aylieff warned that hunger drives migration, radicalization and ultimately instability — and an unstable Afghanistan is "in no-one's interest," given the history of instability spilling over across the country's borders.

He said that in the past three years, millions of Afghans had been forcibly returned, adding to the strain within the country.

This year has brought a better harvest — but that has been completely offset by Afghanistan's challenges.

"At present, close to 14 million Afghans are acutely hungry," and, "crippled by funding cuts, WFP has only been able to feed one in nine of them."

The UN agency has also completely stopped food distributions aimed at preventing famine in particular hotspots, as "we simply don't have the funding", he said.

WFP needed $900 million at the start of the year but has received only $130 million so far.

The agency said it now needed $540 million to address acute food insecurity in Afghanistan over the next six months.

"We would like all donors to be returning to Afghanistan to address the humanitarian situation, including the United States and others that have ceased funding Afghanistan," Aylieff said.