Hunger is increasing dramatically in Afghanistan, fuelled by an economic crisis that has only gotten worse since the Taliban seized power in the country nearly three months ago.
Guldana's father, Jinnat Gul, said he can hardly afford to feed her and his other five children. He used to work going house to house collecting scrap goods and selling them. But for the past three months, work has dried up and he has hardly made any money.
Afghanistan is the source of most of that increase. The number of Afghans living in near-famine conditions has risen to 8.7 million, up by 3 million from earlier this year, the WFP said. Overall, almost 24 million people in Afghanistan, or 60% of the population, suffer from acute hunger. An estimated 3.2 million children under age 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year.
The country's economy had been rapidly declining under the previous U.S.-backed government, which struggled to pay salaries to its employees. The Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital had to expand its space dedicated to malnutrition cases from one room to three, said one doctor there, Salahuddin Salah. At least 25 children brought to the hospital over the past two months have died, he said. Most staff at the hospital, from doctors and nurses to cleaning staff, have not received their salaries in three months.
Mohammed was born a month prematurely, and his mother died from complications in the birth. "She bled to death because we had no money to take her to the hospital," said Rahila, the second wife of Mohammed's father, who brought the baby to the hospital.
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