"One in three Afghans is extremely food insecure"
Displaced Afghans from the northern provinces, who fled fighting between the Taliban and the Afghan army, found refuge in a public park in Kabul on August 9, 2021. AP - Rahmat Gul
Text by: Guilhem Delteil Follow
5 mins
As fighting has intensified in recent weeks in Afghanistan and the Taliban have taken control of much of the country, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated.
Three questions to Hsiao-Wei Lee, the deputy representative of the World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan.
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Thousands of Afghans who have left their homes to flee the fighting have found refuge in major cities.
And feeding has become more difficult for many locals.
RFI
:
What is the current situation in terms of access to food in Afghanistan
?
Hsiao-Wei Lee:
Food security and nutritional status are difficult for a number of reasons. First, there are the socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus. Then, a major drought was declared earlier this year, in June. So the fighting added to an already difficult situation. One in three Afghans is severely food insecure and two million children need nutritious treatment. What we fear is that the worst is yet to come. Normally, winters are quite harsh in Afghanistan and it is also the lean period. This is where we usually see an increase in the level of food insecurity and therefore an increase in our need for humanitarian food assistance. Over the past three months,we have provided food assistance to over 4 million people. But if we obtain the necessary means, we will increase this aid in the coming months in order to come to the aid of 9 million people by December.
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Also listen: Afghanistan: "We are at the start of a major humanitarian crisis" [International guest]
Thousands of people have fled the combat zones and found refuge for now in urban areas, particularly Kabul. How are you responding to the needs of displaced people in Kabul
?
In Kabul, we helped 1,000 households, which equates to around 7,000 people. And arrivals are increasing at a very sustained rate. We first do an assessment and register new arrivals. Our help is really linked to needs and not just to the status of people. With limited resources, we make sure we're reaching out to those who need it most. And it is an essentially multisectoral response: it is not only a question of food assistance but we also work with
other agencies.
to provide shelter, for example.
Given the number of people arriving, we have mobile teams to do the assessments, to monitor changing needs and be able to respond to them.
But one of our biggest challenges is to do this without creating a "magnet effect", so as not to attract people for whom coming to Kabul would not be the best solution.
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To listen: In Afghanistan, thousands of families on the roads to flee the fighting [International report]
And are you still able to work across the country
?
We are still working in all provinces of Afghanistan. This does not mean that we are able to provide assistance at all times. We do it when we are able to do it. When there are windows of opportunity for us to help, we take them. For example, you can have fights in one location for a few days and then an opportunity arises for us to do distributions. We work from six field offices which all still have staff on site and all make deliveries in their area of action. We are still working for example in Faizabad, Hérat, Kandahar. In Faizabad, we made food distributions this Friday.
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To read also: Afghanistan: the noose is tightening around Kabul, NATO calls a crisis meeting
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