Asia Council urges scaling-up humanitarian support in Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Asia Council has urged the international community to immediately and swiftly act to enormously scale up the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan before the long and harsh winter sets in, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Over 90 percent of the 40 million population of Afghanistan are ‘food insecure’ as of today with over 20 million or half the Afghan population suffering from chronic hunger,  the council says in its statement.

The Asia Council report comes at a time when the people of Afghanistan already suffered due to natural disasters in the form of earthquakes and floods recently.

The current acting Afghan government often called on the international community to remove sanctions and facilitate Afghanistan’s banking system to improve the economic situation of the people of Afghanistan.

During recent natural disasters, Afghan government appealed to the world for humanitarian aid to address the needs of affected people in the country.

This has put millions at risk of dying of starvation. Children and mothers are particularly vulnerable to prolonged exposure to acute undernourishment and a severely inadequate health care system reads the statement.

Winter snow in Afghanistan posed a serious logistical challenge for the movement of humanitarian aid. Recurring natural disasters has already aggravated the crisis and a massive flood in neighboring Pakistan has disrupted a very critical supply line.

To prevent the annihilation of millions from hunger and disease, the international community must act immediately and swiftly to enormously scale-up the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan before the long and harsh winter sets in.

The report also stressed on the urgent need to resurrect the Afghan economy at the earliest with a ‘functional banking system’ integrated with the global economy to escape the vicious cycle of deprivation.

This interim report on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan will be taken up for discussion by regional leaders at Asia Council Forum on Economic Cooperation at the council’s South Asia & South East Asia directorate in Bangkok.

Pr/nh