Drop in aid funding puts Afghans at risk of famine: WFP

STORY: A drop in donor funding could push parts of Afghanistan into famine this year

[Director, The World Food Programme, Hsiao-wei Lee]:

"I think it is very much in the back of everybody’s mind and we just need to continuously remind ourselves that humanitarian funding, as well as humanitarian action, does need to remain apolitical. At the end of the day it’s mainly women and children who are the most vulnerable, and if our ultimate objective is to serve them and provide assistance to women and children and those who need it the most, then that’s where our objective should lie."

A huge humanitarian aid package after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021 - leading to foreign governments cutting development funding and imposing sanctions - helped avert a widespread famine then, but now those fears are rising again.

[Khair Mohamed]:

"If foreign aid is cut or stopped, what should we do? There is no work, there is no money, so all of us will be dying in poverty and hunger."

[Naz Bibi]:

"We are in dire need of help, because we only have one room with no toilet or kitchen, we have no comfort but hardship in life."

[Director, The World Food Programme, Hsiao-wei Lee]:

It would be actually nine million people who will not receive any assistance. This month the four million will receive some level of assistance whereas nine million people in April will not receive any assistance'