The United Nations predicts an upsurge of need for humanitarian and food assistance in the coming few months in Afghanistan. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said in its latest report that continued war and increase in natural disasters besides cold weather have ramped up demand for food and emergency humanitarian relief in Afghanistan. According to OCHA’s findings, one in every three Afghans is facing famine, stressing that despite some improvements compared to last year, 12.6 million Afghans are in dire need of humanitarian assistance and the number is likely to reach approximately 14 million until spring.
The growing need of Afghan people for humanitarian assistance can well describe the suffering of the war-weary nation. In spite of an inflow of billions of dollars in international aid to Afghanistan over the last two decades, the country’s economy is yet to grow to an extent where people can afford their basic needs. Protracted conflict, high unemployment, natural disasters such as drought and floods and other challenges are to blame for the growing need for humanitarian aid in the country.
The need for humanitarian assistance will further ramp up as the cold weather season approaches because economic activities in many areas of the country begin to halt in winter. Even it becomes difficult to transport food and other basic items to some snowy regions due to road closures, pushing the prices of basic commodities sky-high and therefore unaffordable for poor families. Thus, Afghan government and international donors must swing into action to deliver humanitarian assistance to those regions before heavy snowfall blocks the access roads. If the government and international relief organizations, including relevant UN agencies, fail to timely respond to the needy, a humanitarian crisis can emerge in the country. It is the shared responsibility of the government and people of Afghanistan, international donors and relief organizations to stave off such a situation. They all have to join hands to make sure the forgotten poor families receive essential items to survive in the cold winter days. The death of humans due to lack of basic commodities in the 21st century, which is the most resource-rich century, is under no circumstances tolerable.
