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Hunger hits millions of Afghans: U.N.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Some 40 percent of Afghanistan's population is facing famine, according to the United Nations. Concern is rising among relief agencies as nine million drought-stricken Afghans try to survive the most testing food gap of the year -- the weeks leading up to the harvest in July. In response to the crisis the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) has launched an urgent appeal for $28 million dollars to make up a shortfall of about 75,000 tons of food. "The period from now until the harvest will be the harshest time of the year for millions of Afghans whose meager food stocks from the bad harvest of last year have depleted," Burke Oberle, WFP Director for Afghanistan said in a statement. A break in the food pipeline in a period known as the "lean months" could lead to a potential halt in aid distribution by June. Three years of drought have displaced more than one million Afghans, killed tens of thousands of livestock and several hundred people in parts of the war-shattered land-locked country. The world food body is also especially concerned about malnutrition and starvation in the country's highlands after a very disappointing harvest last summer left Afghanistan with a massive cereal deficit. Donations helped avert a famine during last winter and the WFP is hoping to repeat its success and avoid further tragedy, but the number of needy Afghans has jumped by 50 percent. The WFP has conducted over 60 rapid assessments in the rural areas of Afghanistan over the past few weeks, using helicopters to reach some of the more inaccessible areas in the rugged mountainous parts of the country. The findings show that there is an increasing need for food aid in the pre-harvest hunger period. "Malnutrition, the continued sale of household assets, and more children being pushed into the labor market to support their families are all indicators that a potentially serious food crisis is in the making," Oberle said in a statement. Many parts of Afghanistan have had more rain and snow this year, but swarms of millions of locusts are posing a threat to farms in the north of the country, the food basket of Afghanistan, for a second year running. |
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