4 million children to face malnutrition in 2022: UN Delegation

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that at least four million Afghan children are expected to be affected with malnutrition, of whom 137,000 will lose their life in 2022.

OCHA director Reena Ghelani, in order to assess the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, led a delegation visiting Kabul. The visit was followed by the complaint made by many Afghan citizens about the unjust distribution of UN aid.

The UN delegation further warned that at least 18 million Afghans are facing food insecurity and that nine million of them are in dire need of food.

"The time is now. We have no time to wait. We have to get the economy going and we need to give people hope today," Ghelani said.

"We report against our target and our deliveries, and we need to be out there talking to people more and hearing their complaints--we certainly need to hear if there are problems out there and this is part of the mission that we went on," Ghelani told TOLOnews in a special interview.

"...I spent most of my time and all of us... talking to Afghan people about those exact issues and hearing from them directly so that we can make sure that we are targeting correctly," she added.

According to the economists, providing cash directly to the Afghan people would better help the Afghan economic system.

"If the aid was provided in cash, it would help the value of the Afghan currency and would solve the cash problems in the markets," said Abdul Naseer Rishtia, a university professor.

"The government should assess the aid provided by the UN. The contracts of the UN organizations should be shared (with the government) and the government must investigate it to see if the aid is provided to the people who deserve it," said Muzamil Shinwari, an economist.

As millions of people are grappling with the economic crisis, earlier, the UK announced that it will co-host a UN conference on the Afghan humanitarian situation.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since the Taliban took control of Kabul last year in mid-August.

A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis.

( With inputs from ANI )

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