The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is facing a massive food crisis. It urged the international community to act quickly to increase levels of humanitarian aid to help the people.
The director of the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, said millions of Afghans could die of starvation unless immediate action is taken to provide assistance.
Beasley told Reuters an estimated 23 million people currently face severe food insecurity and were “marching to starvation.” This compares to 14 million people who were facing the same situation just two months ago.
“Children are going to die. People are going to starve,” Beasley said. “Things are going to get a lot worse.”
He added: “I don’t know how you don’t have millions of people, and especially children, dying at the rate we are going with the lack of funding and the collapsing of the economy.”
U.N. officials have said the World Food Programme needs up to $220 million a month to partly feed the millions of Afghans facing food insecurity as winter nears.
Economic problems have led many Afghans to sell personal belongings to pay for food, Reuters reported. The latest food crisis has hit both cities and rural areas.
