Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says nearly 3 million cases of malnutrition among mothers and children have been registered since the beginning of 2022. This comes amid of reports that have been recently published in connection with increasing number of children with severe malnutrition and food insecurity in the country.
In its recent research, the Observer Research Foundation has found that Afghanistan has topped food insecurity among 136 countries of the world.
“According to GHI 2022, South Asian countries reported the highest levels of stunting and wasting,” the research has said, adding that these trends are worrying for a region that is home to 600 million children and where over 33 percent of the population faces extreme poverty, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic.
Afghan health experts believe that the deterioration of the economic situation has put negative impacts on food security among families in the country.
“The more people’s economic situation gets worse, the more small children suffer from various diseases, particularly malnutrition,” said Mohammad Nasir Kazimi, a physician.
He said that lack of food security would definitely increase cases of malnutrition among Afghan children as deterioration of economic situation could have a direct link to the increasing number of children with severe malnutrition in the country.
With increasing level of food insecurity among families in the country, cases of severe malnutrition have increased.
Parents who have brought their babies suffering from severe malnutrition to Indira Gandhi pediatric hospital in Kabul say they cannot afford to provide healthy food for their children.
“My child is suffering from severe malnutrition; therefore, he has been hospitalized for four months at Indira Gandhi hospital,” said a mother who is taking care of her child.
Meanwhile, doctors at the Indira Gandhi pediatric hospital in Kabul say 2 – 4 children with severe malnutrition are hospitalized on daily basis.
The country’s ministry of public health says nearly 3 cases of malnutrition among mothers and children have been registered in the country since the beginning of 2022.
“Since the beginning of the year 2022, nearly 2.8 million children with moderate and severe malnutrition and mothers have been affected,” said Sharafat Zaman Amarkhil, a spokesperson to the country’s ministry of public health.
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are the countries facing with food insecurity due to poor economic conditions among the people.
Previously, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) reported that the poverty rate soared from 47% in 2020 to 70% in 2021 and then to 97% in 2022 in Afghanistan. This means that currently, 97% of the Afghan population lives under the poverty line as Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Saida Ahmadi
Increasing food insecurity level among Afghan families
