Afghanistan is seeing its sharpest-ever surge of child malnutrition, the World Food Program said Monday, adding it needed $539 million to help the country’s most vulnerable families.
Almost 10 million people, a quarter of Afghanistan’s population, face acute food insecurity. One in three children is stunted.
The WFP said the rise in child malnutrition was linked to a drop in emergency food assistance over the past two years because of dwindling donor support. In April, the administration of US President Donald Trump cut off food aid to Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries.
The US had been the largest funder of the WFP, providing $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion in donations last year. Previous US administrations viewed such aid as serving national security by alleviating conflict, poverty, extremism and curbing migration.
Food insecurity in Afghanistan is being worsened by mass returns from neighboring countries, which are deporting foreigners they say are living there illegally.
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