Geneva, Oct. 17, (dpa/GNA) – Aid organizations are seeing widespread and acute malnutrition in children in Afghanistan, the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported in Geneva on Thursday.
Backing an appeal by UN organizations, the IFRC called for more donations to save thousands of lives in the country.
“The scale of malnutrition in our country is staggering,” said Mohammad Nabi Burhan, secretary general of the Afghan Red Crescent.
Children are completely exhausted, and some have prematurely stopped growing, Burhan continued. Many parents told aid workers that they did not have enough money to buy food and that they had already sold all of their possessions.
The federation has provided 500,000 Swiss francs ($580,000) from an emergency aid programme. The Red Crescent is also helping families prepare nutritious meals for their children.
The precarious situation in the country, which has been ruled by the hardline Islamist Taliban since the summer of 2021, is a result of economic instability and the consequences of climate change and conflict. GNA