Afghanistan faces soaring hunger crisis as WFP seeks urgent aid
The agency said on Sunday that returning women and children are among the most vulnerable, facing the harshest effects of rising food insecurity.
According to Khaama Press, the WFP stated that the situation is deteriorating rapidly, as more Afghan families struggle to afford basic food amid widespread poverty and economic instability.
"Two out of every three women leading households are unable to feed their families," WFP said, highlighting the dire condition that has left millions in desperate need of assistance.
The organisation also reported that 3.5 million Afghan children are already suffering from malnutrition, further intensifying the humanitarian emergency.
As per Khaama Press, the WFP said that 10 million people across Afghanistan now rely on humanitarian aid for survival, placing the country among the highest globally in terms of food insecurity.
"This escalating crisis highlights the urgent need for sustained international support," the WFP noted, warning that without immediate funding, the risk of widespread hunger and deeper suffering--especially among vulnerable women and children--will only increase in the months ahead, Khaama Press reported.
Worsening the humanitarian emergency, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has revealed that Kabul now houses over 40 per cent of Afghanistan's total urban population, with most residents living in unsafe informal settlements, Khaama Press reported.
According to the agency, four out of every five people in Kabul reside in informal areas that lack basic infrastructure and are highly exposed to environmental hazards.
UN-Habitat warned that these communities "face increasing risks from extreme weather events driven by climate change," placing millions of residents in danger, as cited by Khaama Press.
The organisation said immediate measures are essential to "strengthen climate resilience and address the unsafe living conditions that dominate the Afghanistan's capital."
The report further pointed out that most returnees to Afghanistan are forced to live in these informal settlements, which frequently lack healthcare, sanitation, and other basic services.
Highlighting the deepening humanitarian and environmental crisis, UN-Habitat noted, "Kabul's fragile housing situation has become both a humanitarian and environmental challenge."
As per Khaama Press, the agency emphasised that without urgent investment in infrastructure, climate adaptation, and essential services, "Kabul's most vulnerable citizens will remain trapped in cycles of risk and deprivation."
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Times of Oman
2 days ago
- Times of Oman
Afghanistan faces soaring hunger crisis as WFP seeks urgent aid
Kabul: Hunger in Afghanistan is worsening, with the World Food Programme (WFP) warning it needs $539 million over the next six months to address the country's growing food crisis, Khaama Press reported. The agency said on Sunday that returning women and children are among the most vulnerable, facing the harshest effects of rising food insecurity. According to Khaama Press, the WFP stated that the situation is deteriorating rapidly, as more Afghan families struggle to afford basic food amid widespread poverty and economic instability. "Two out of every three women leading households are unable to feed their families," WFP said, highlighting the dire condition that has left millions in desperate need of assistance. The organisation also reported that 3.5 million Afghan children are already suffering from malnutrition, further intensifying the humanitarian emergency. As per Khaama Press, the WFP said that 10 million people across Afghanistan now rely on humanitarian aid for survival, placing the country among the highest globally in terms of food insecurity. "This escalating crisis highlights the urgent need for sustained international support," the WFP noted, warning that without immediate funding, the risk of widespread hunger and deeper suffering--especially among vulnerable women and children--will only increase in the months ahead, Khaama Press reported. Worsening the humanitarian emergency, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has revealed that Kabul now houses over 40 per cent of Afghanistan's total urban population, with most residents living in unsafe informal settlements, Khaama Press reported. According to the agency, four out of every five people in Kabul reside in informal areas that lack basic infrastructure and are highly exposed to environmental hazards. UN-Habitat warned that these communities "face increasing risks from extreme weather events driven by climate change," placing millions of residents in danger, as cited by Khaama Press. The organisation said immediate measures are essential to "strengthen climate resilience and address the unsafe living conditions that dominate the Afghanistan's capital." The report further pointed out that most returnees to Afghanistan are forced to live in these informal settlements, which frequently lack healthcare, sanitation, and other basic services. Highlighting the deepening humanitarian and environmental crisis, UN-Habitat noted, "Kabul's fragile housing situation has become both a humanitarian and environmental challenge." As per Khaama Press, the agency emphasised that without urgent investment in infrastructure, climate adaptation, and essential services, "Kabul's most vulnerable citizens will remain trapped in cycles of risk and deprivation."
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most needy
Paris: The trickle of food aid Israel allows to enter Gaza after nearly 22 months of war is seized by Palestinians risking their lives under fire, looted by gangs or diverted in chaotic circumstances rather than reaching those most in need, UN agencies, aid groups and analysts say. After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organisations. Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing towards food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces. On Thursday, in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust. "Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives," Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP. To avoid disturbances, World Food Programme (WFP) drivers have been instructed to stop before their intended destination and let people help themselves. But to no avail. "A truck wheel almost crushed my head, and I was injured retrieving the bag," sighed a man, carrying a bag of flour on his head, in the Zikim area, in the northern Gaza Strip. - 'Truly tragic' - Mohammad Abu Taha went at dawn to a distribution site near Rafah in the south to join the queue and reserve his spot. He said there were already "thousands waiting, all hungry, for a bag of flour or a little rice and lentils." "Suddenly, we heard gunshots..... There was no way to escape. People started running, pushing and shoving each other, children, women, the elderly," said the 42-year-old. "The scene was truly tragic: blood everywhere, wounded, dead." Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Friday. The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires "warning shots" when people approach too close to its positions. International organisations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes. On Tuesday, in Zikim, the Israeli army "changed loading plans for WFP, mixing cargo unexpectedly. The convoy was forced to leave early, without proper security," said a senior UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the south of Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, "there are two possible routes to reach our warehouses (in central Gaza)," said an NGO official, who also preferred to remain anonymous. "One is fairly safe, the other is regularly the scene of fighting and looting, and that's the one we're forced to take." - 'Darwinian experiment' - Some of the aid is looted by gangs -- who often directly attack warehouses -- and diverted to traders who resell it at exorbitant prices, according to several humanitarian sources and experts. "It becomes this sort of Darwinian social experiment of the survival of the fittest," said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). "People who are the most starved in the world and do not have the energy must run and chase after a truck and wait for hours and hours in the sun and try to muscle people and compete for a bag of flour," he said. Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, added: "We're in an ultra-capitalist system, where traders and corrupt gangs send kids to risk life and limb at distribution points or during looting. It's become a new profession." This food is then resold to "those who can still afford it" in the markets of Gaza City, where the price of a 25-kilogramme bag of flour can exceed $400, he added. - 'Never found proof' - Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, which has been delivering the bulk of aid since the start of the war triggered by the militant group's October 2023 attack. The Israeli authorities have used this accusation to justify the total blockade they imposed on Gaza between March and May, and the subsequent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation supported by Israel and the United States which has become the main aid distributor, sidelining UN agencies. However, for more than two million inhabitants of Gaza the GHF has just four distribution points, which the UN describes as a "death trap". "Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population many times by shooting Palestinians," said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. But according to senior Israeli military officials quoted by the New York Times on July 26, Israel "never found proof" that the group had "systematically stolen aid" from the UN. Weakened by the war with Israel which has seen most of its senior leadership killed, Hamas today is made up of "basically decentralised autonomous cells" said Shehada. He said while Hamas militants still hunker down in each Gaza neighbourhood in tunnels or destroyed buildings, they are not visible on the ground "because Israel has been systematically going after them". Aid workers told AFP that during the ceasefire that preceded the March blockade, the Gaza police -- which includes many Hamas members -- helped secure humanitarian convoys, but that the current power vacuum was fostering insecurity and looting. "UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to facilitate and protect aid convoys and storage sites in our warehouses across the Gaza Strip," said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at Oxfam. "These calls have largely been ignored," she added. - 'All kinds of criminal activities' - The Israeli army is also accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid. "The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza," Jonathan Whittall, Palestinian territories chief of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters in May. According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, an armed group called the Popular Forces, made up of members of a Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab, is operating in the southern region under Israeli control. The ECFR describes Abu Shabab as leading a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks". The Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab. Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, said many of the gang's members were implicated in "all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that". "None of this can happen in Gaza without the approval, at least tacit, of the Israeli army," said a humanitarian worker in Gaza, asking not to be named.
Times of Oman
25-07-2025
- Times of Oman
Hiroshima marks 80 years since atomic bombing with message of peace
Hiroshima: The year 2025 marks a significant milestone- 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a solemn and memorable year for both cities, especially Hiroshima, which continues to share its message of world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. To commemorate this occasion, Hiroshima City and its partners are showcasing powerful evidence of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb. Their goal is to spread the "Hiroshima Spirit" -- a global call for everlasting peace and the complete elimination of nuclear arms. As part of these efforts, the interior of the Atomic Bomb Dome -- a place usually off-limits to the public -- has been opened to the media. This rare access serves as a powerful symbol, offering the world a first-hand look at the remains of the catastrophe. Inside the dome lie broken bricks, collapsed stones, and deformed steel frames, all damaged by the blast. In 1996, the Atomic Bomb Dome was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site, standing as a reminder of the horrors of nuclear warfare. Before the bombing, approximately 6,500 people lived in what is now the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Today, their remains lie beneath the ground. Every year, citizens gather to offer prayers, saying: "Please sleep peacefully. We shall not repeat the same mistake." An estimated 1,40,000 people died as a result of the bombing in 1945. As of now, around 2,50,000 survivors -- known as Hibakusha -- are still alive, serving as living witnesses to the tragedy. However, as time passes and survivors age, Hiroshima City is taking steps to preserve their testimonies for future generations. To ensure these stories live on, the city has introduced a Legacy Successor Training Program, aimed at training younger generations to share the survivors' experiences. Additionally, a ground-breaking AI-based testimony simulation has been developed. It features virtual interviews with six survivors, including 94-year-old Yoshiko Kajimoto. On one side, she appears in a recorded video, while on the other, an interactive AI avatar answers audience questions. The system includes responses to over 900 questions, selected by AI. Explaining her decision to participate, Ms Kajimoto said, "Even after I am gone, the horror of the atomic bombing must not be forgotten. I want future generations to know and remember. I'm happy to support this project." Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui emphasized the city's commitment to peace. He said, "To preserve the memory of this tragedy, we are training the next generation to carry on the testimonies. In a world where conflicts still erupt, Hiroshima sends a message of peace and nonviolence." He also extended a message to India and said, "We received a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a symbol of nonviolence. I sincerely hope that India will embody this ideal and work toward a peaceful society and the abolition of nuclear weapons."
