The International Rescue Committee head voiced concerns over global food insecurity, saying that more than 345 million people are facing food insecurity due to climate crises, conflicts and as well as people being unable to “afford to buy food.”
“Globally, we’re facing a more than doubling of extreme hunger around the world– 345 million people around the world who are just shy of famine,” said David Miliband, IRC head, to Yahoo News.
“For 345 million people, that’s because their food is being washed away by climate crises, like in Pakistan,” the CEO of the International Rescue Coalition (IRC), David Miliband said as quoted by Yahoo.
“Access to food is being blocked because of conflicts, like in places like Yemen. And also because they can’t afford to buy food, which is the situation in Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan has recently been hit with severe economic and humanitarian crises with the World Food Program projecting that more than half the country’s population is facing food insecurity.
TOLOnews’ reporter Amina Hakimi interviewed a family struggling in dire economic conditions. Khatira is a mother of two children, who lost her husband two years ago.
“My children don’t have a breadwinner. I buy oil with very less money–10 to 20 Afs. The winter is coming and I am anxious about what to do,” she said.
“My daughter has kidney problems. All I have is this small amount of money and I can’t afford her medicine,” said Azim Khatira’s father.
This comes as Kabul residents complained about the significant drop in employment, saying that their economic challenges will rise as winter is coming.
“When I was working as a street worker. I was making around 400 to 500 Afs. The flour was sold with less money but now the price of flour and oil has risen,” said Abdul Raqib, a resident of Kabul.
Earlier, the WFP in a report said that 24.4 million Afghans including 12 million women and children are in grave need of humanitarian assistance.
