Forced to cut food aid due to funding crisis: UN

KABUL (Pajhwok): Cash payments and assistance to millions of people has been slashed as a result of a funding crisis, says the United Nations.

Food aid to people in 38 countries, including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa, has already been curtailed, or will be cut soon.

“A crippling funding crisis” had forced the UN agency, operating in 86 countries, to slash assistance due to a 50 percent fall in donations, said WFP’s deputy executive director.

The Associated Press quoted Carl Skau as saying WFP’s needed $20 billion to deliver aid to everyone in need, but it was aiming for between $10 billion and $14 billion -- what the agency had received over the past few years.

Skau told journalists: “We’re still aiming at that, but we have only so far this year gotten to about half of that, around $5 billion.”

With humanitarian needs continuing to rise, funding levels were declining, he said, warning the situation in 2024 could be even worse.

In March, the official recalled, WFP had to decrease rations from 75 percent to 50 percent for communities in Afghanistan.

The official asked global leaders to prioritise humanitarian aid and invest in long-term solutions to war and poverty, as well as other causes of the present crisis.

PAN Monitor/mud