One Million Afghan Children Could Die Of Acute Malnutrition If Urgent Actions Not Taken: UNICEF

The UNICEF has warned that 1 million children in Afghanistan may die of acute malnutrition if urgent action wasn't taken.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, the UN agency referred to the case of a two-year-old child and said: "Having recently recovered from acute watery diarrhea, two years old Soria is back in the hospital, this time suffering from edema and wasting. Her mother has been by her bedside for the past 2 weeks anxiously waiting for Soria to recover."

In the following tweet, Unicef added that "without urgent action, 1 million children could die from severe acute malnutrition".

According to Unicef estimates, 24.4 million Afghans, including 13.1 children, will need humanitarian assistance in 2022.

Reuters

Of this number, 1.1 million are acutely malnourished children under the age of five years due to the food crisis and poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.

Outbreaks of life-threatening diseases continue, with over 60,000 cases of measles reported in 2021.

The Taliban's Ministry of Public Health has claimed that the number of children suffering from malnutrition is around 4.4. million in Afghanistan.

"To overcome malnutrition in Afghanistan, there have been some measures enforced to enhance the health sector and also to recruit the international aid to support the Afghan health sector," said Javid Hajir, a spokesman for the Ministry.

Currency crisis pushes millions to starvation

Ever since the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan¡¯s currency has gone on to plummet, which has only exacerbated the economic crisis.

The currency crisis is leaving millions of people at the risk of starvation, with the humanitarian crisis impacting not only Afghanistan's people but even the import-dependent countries.

AFP

Besides the Turkish currency Lira which has been tumbling due to the unorthodox economic policy of its President, the Afghani currency has become one of the worst-performing currencies in the world in the last six months.

The United Nations (UN) has appealed for humanitarian aid of $4.4bn (?3.2bn) for Afghanistan.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said "We go into 2022 with unprecedented levels of need amongst ordinary women, men, and children of Afghanistan. 24.4 million people are in humanitarian need - more than half the population,"

The UN also highlighted that on top of this economic and humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan is now in the midst of one of its worst droughts in several decades.