Rural Afghans facing food emergency: U.N officials

Many vulnerable families rely on livestock for food, say Rein Paulsen

Four million and the majority live in rural areas where $36 million is urgently needed for the coming months to ensure the planting of winter wheat, feed for livestock, and cash assistance for vulnerable families, the elderly and disabled, a U.N. official said Tuesday.

Rein Paulsen, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in a video briefing from Kabul that 70% of Afghans live in rural areas and there is a severe drought affecting 7.3 million Afghans in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces. These vulnerable rural communities have also been hit by the pandemic, he said.

Mr. Paulsen said 4 million Afghans are facing a humanitarian emergency, characterized by “extreme gaps in food consumption, very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.”