Guttierez: 95% of Afghans do not have enough food to eat

The UN Secretary-General said on Thursday that 9 million people in Afghanistan were at risk of famine. UNICEF estimates that about one million Afghan children who are severely malnourished are at risk of death and will not receive immediate assistance.

He added that due to the war in Ukraine, world food prices are rising sharply. This is a disaster for Afghans trying to feed their families, as well as our relief operations.

The UN Secretary-General has stated that people are selling their children and organs to provide food for their families. Afghanistan’s economy has completely collapsed and there is very little liquidity. More than 80% of Afghanistan’s population is in debt.

The UN Secretary-General has warned that workers in vital services, including schools and hospitals, have not been paid for months. Businesses can not operate. Revenues are lost and farmers can no longer buy seeds or fertilizers. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that if we do not take action, 97% of Afghans will live below the poverty line by the middle of this year.

Guterres stressed that the international community must find a way so that the decision to cut development support to the country and freeze nearly $ 9 billion in Afghan assets abroad does not affect the Afghan people. Wealthy and powerful countries can not ignore the consequences of their decisions on the most vulnerable. The first step in any meaningful humanitarian response for Afghanistan must be to prevent the free fall of Afghanistan’s economy.

“I deeply regret the suspension of the education of girls in the sixth grade,” the UN secretary-general said, referring to the Taliban authorities’ decision to ban the education of girls in the sixth grade. This is a violation of the equal rights of girls, which harms the whole country and exposes girls to more violence, poverty and exploitation. There is no justification for such discrimination.