The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rapidly ramping up humanitarian operations in Afghanistan to assist more than 23 million people facing severe hunger in the country in 2022, as inflation and currency depreciation make it even more difficult to feed themselves.
WFP has assisted 15 million people so far in 2021, with 7 million assisted in November alone – up from 4 million in September, the UN agency said in a press release Tuesday.
WFP has also been able to preposition food in strategic locations across the northeast and central highlands of the country where heavy winter snows can cut off communities from assistance. This will ensure that WFP can provide a lifeline to areas that would otherwise be cut off.
“Afghanistan is facing an avalanche of hunger and destitution the likes of which I have never seen in my twenty plus years with the WFP,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP country director in Afghanistan.
