KABUL: Children are dying due to starvation in Afghanistan, local and international sources say on Saturday, after a warning that a million young people there can face malnutrition that threatens the loss of life at the end of the year.
In Ghor, one of the provinces affected, at least 17 children among those who managed to get to the hospital have died of malnutrition in the past six months, Mullah Provincial Health Director Mohammad Ahmadi told AFP.
Nearly 300 has been treated for hunger effects.
Hundreds of children are at risk of hunger in the middle of the country, he said.
A spokesman for the United Nations Subdivision in Afghanistan said he could not confirm the number of deaths in Ghor but fear “many children pay the highest price”.
Salam Al-Janabi UNICEF said the network monitoring agency was disrupted and relied on anecdotal reports, but “we are very aware that this is something we are on the verge, or in the middle”.
Because the Taliban swept power in mid-August, Afghanistan had fallen deeper into the horrible humanitarian crisis.
The effect of drought, the price of food that soared and lost work has been exacerbated by international assistance and financing all except to stop.
The United Nations has warned that at the end of the year one million children under the age of five in Afghanistan, it is expected to be necessary to care for “serious acute malnutrition” who threatens the lives, while 3.3 million will suffer from acute malnutrition.