Afghanistan Among Eight Countries Facing Severe Hunger: Report

As per report, the most hungry countries in the world are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, DRC, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen, in addition to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, children are so hungry and are also more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases such as cholera as a result of malnutrition.

According to a Khaama Press report, the hunger and starvation problem has gotten worse as several other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Save the Children have stopped their life-saving work in Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban's current regime's ban on women working in private organizations.

The provision of life-saving surfacing by female NGO workers was critical at the time. The living conditions of people, particularly children, in Afghanistan are deteriorating due to poverty, hunger, unemployment, and a lack of security. In a previous joint statement, the United Nations agencies, Save the Children, and others stated that "some time-critical" programmes in Afghanistan had been temporarily halted due to a lack of female staff.

In a joint statement, the UN agencies urged the Taliban to reverse the decision that barred women from working in NGOs and from attending schools and universities, calling it a "major blow" to vulnerable communities.

"Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans," said the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Principals on Afghanistan in a statement posted on the website of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Efforts. Some time-critical programmes have already been forced to halt temporarily due to a lack of female staff."

Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu, Emergency Relief Coordinator, World Health Organization Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Martin Griffiths, and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk are among those who have signed the statement.

The statement noted that the Taliban's ban on women working in non-governmental organisations comes at a time when over 28 million Afghans require assistance to survive as the country faces famine conditions, economic decline, entrenched poverty, and a harsh winter. It warned that the activities would most likely be halted because humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without the presence of female aid workers.