Humanitarian aid to Afghanistan is drying up, warns UN

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has issued a dire warning about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, stating that millions of lives are at risk due to a lack of funding.

In a tweet on Wednesday, UNOCHA stated that “Funding for the Afghanistan appeal is drying up putting millions of lives at risk. Already, the food basket has had to be cut to half due to insufficient resources. If funding is not urgently secured, millions of Afghans will be staring down the barrel of famine, disease and death.”

With less than 5% of the requested funding for aid in Afghanistan being fulfilled, UNOCHA said that humanitarian operations in the country have the least financial aid, despite the crisis being the most serious in the world.

The UN has requested $4.6 billion for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, without which millions of people will lose life-saving aid and face emergency levels of food insecurity with six million already one step away from famine.

Moreover, the Taliban’s recent ban on women working in UN offices has created additional obstacles for the organization’s operations in Afghanistan.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated that the group is forcing them to make an appalling choice between staying in Afghanistan and upholding its principles.