Afghanistan needs over $2b in humanitarian aid

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says since the beginning of this year, it has received nearly $959 million in aid, but more than $2 billion is still required.

OCHA said: “Between January and September 2024, humanitarian partners reached 15.3 million people with at least one form of humanitarian assistance and up to 2.8 million people with three different types of sectoral support.”

Although this represents a broad reach in absolute terms, 62 per cent (9.5 million) of the 15.3 million people reached overall received food assistance.

This highlights the extent to which food assistance continues to drive overall response figures while also overshadowing the millions of people who will require multiple rounds of assistance throughout the year to ensure their needs are adequately met.

The response was enabled by a combination of new funding as of September 29, 2024 (US$958.5 million) and funds carried over from 2023 ($412.5 million).

However, $2.10 billion (69 per cent) of the $3.06 billion required to deliver humanitarian assistance remained unfunded in September 2024.

At the same time, new needs continue to be generated by sudden-onset crises while simultaneously exacerbating underlying vulnerabilities.

sa/mud