{"id":70440,"date":"2025-04-12T15:10:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T10:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=70440"},"modified":"2025-04-12T15:10:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T10:10:32","slug":"un-warns-us-aid-cuts-threaten-millions-of-afghans-with-famine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/un-warns-us-aid-cuts-threaten-millions-of-afghans-with-famine\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions Of Afghans With Famine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan<\/a>, according to the World Food Programme<\/a>, which warned it can support just half the people in need and only with half rations.<\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0AFP<\/em>, WFP\u2019s acting country director, Mutinta Chimuka, urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world\u2019s second-largest humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith what resources we have now, barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that\u2019s only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors,\u201d Chimuka said.<\/p>\n

The agency already has been \u201cgiving a half ration to\u00a0stretch\u00a0the resources that we have\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, the WFP usually would be assisting two million people \u201cto prevent famine, so that\u2019s already a huge number that we\u2019re worried about\u201d, Chimuka said.<\/p>\n

Already grappling with a 40 per cent drop in funding for this year globally, and seeing a decline in funding for Afghanistan in recent years, the WFP has had to\u00a0split\u00a0the standard ration \u2014 designed to meet the daily minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a basic package, but it\u2019s life-saving,\u201d said Chimuka. \u201cAnd we should, as a global community, be able to provide that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.<\/p>\n

Emergency food aid was meant to be exempt, but this week, WFP said the US had announced it was cutting emergency food aid for 14 countries, including Afghanistan, amounting to \u201ca death sentence for millions of people\u201d if implemented.<\/p>\n

Washington quickly\u00a0backtracked\u00a0on the cuts for six countries, but Afghanistan \u2014 run by Taliban authorities who fought US-led troops for decades \u2014 was not one of them.<\/p>\n

If additional funding doesn\u2019t come through, \u201cThen there\u2019s the possibility that we may have to go to communities and tell them we\u2019re not able to support them. And how do they survive?\u201d<\/p>\n

She highlighted the high levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, one of the world\u2019s poorest, where thousands of Afghans are currently being repatriated from Pakistan, many without most of their belongings or homes to go to.<\/a><\/p>\n

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, this week urged international donors to keep supporting Afghanistan, saying 22.9 million needed assistance this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to help the Afghan people escape the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, we must continue to have the means to address urgent needs while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term resilience and stability,\u201d said Indrika Ratwatte, the UN\u2019s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, in a statement.<\/p>\n

The statement warned that a lack of international aid in Afghanistan could lead to increased migration and strain on the broader region.<\/p>\n

The call for funding comes as other countries including Germany and Britain, have also made large cuts\u00a0to overseas aid.<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration cut has been the deepest. The US was traditionally the world\u2019s largest donor, with the biggest portion in Afghanistan \u2014\u00a0$280ml\u00a0\u2014 going to the WFP last fiscal year, according to US State Department figures.<\/p>\n

But other UN agencies, as well as local and international NGOs, are being squeezed or having to shut down completely, straining the network of organisations providing aid in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration also ended two programmes \u2014 one in Afghanistan \u2014 with the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, the agency said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Other organisations working on agriculture \u2014 on which some 80 percent of Afghans depend to survive \u2014 and malnutrition are impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all need to work together,\u201d said Chimuka. \u201cAnd if all of us are cut at the knees\u2026 it doesn\u2019t work. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Programme, which warned it can support just half the people in need and only with half rations. In an interview with\u00a0AFP, WFP\u2019s acting country director, Mutinta Chimuka, urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":34486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2888,3137,182,27759],"class_list":["post-70440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-afghans","tag-un","tag-us","tag-wfp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70441,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70440\/revisions\/70441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}