INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
food agency warned Friday that with Russia&s war in Ukraine taking an increasing toll on the global economy, the ripples of that conflict
will further increase food and fuel prices in Afghanistan.Currently, as many as 95% of the country&s 38 million people don''t have enough to
eat or money to buy food, The Associated Press reported.Shelley Thakral, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said that food prices in
Afghanistan rose nearly 40% over the last eight months.The WFP has spent $1 billion feeding millions of Afghans this year but needs another
$1.6 billion, Thakral added.The worrying thing, I think and this includes Afghanistan as well as all the other hunger spots across the
world, is the rise in food and fuel prices,& said Thakral.So far, donor countries have not sidelined Afghanistan but she said they &have to
dig deeper& as Europe deals with the shockwaves of the war and the 3.2 million refugees who have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its
invasion on February 24.Thakral&s remarks echoed those of U.N
refugee chief Filippo Grandi, who warned during a visit to Kabul on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine could siphon off money from humanitarian
crisis elsewhere, including in Afghanistan, and that soaring food prices could cripple humanitarian efforts.While most of Afghanistan&s
wheat supplies come from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Thakral said the increasing food and fuel cost as a result of the war could add up to
20% to the costs of providing humanitarian assistance, AP reported.When the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) swept to power in August,
international donor money, which paid more than 80% percent of Afghanistan&s bills, dried up and the country&s economy went into free
fall.There was food on Kabul markets on Friday but Masihullah, standing by his small grocery stall, said no one has money
Most people don''t have jobs, Masihullah said.A sack of flour costs nearly $28 and most Afghans are now below the poverty line, which means
they earn $1.90 a day or less, AP reported.Thakral said 80% of Afghans are in debt because they have had to borrow to pay for food or
medicines and even working Afghans look to the WFP for food aid because they don''t make enough to be able to afford the food on the
market.A Human Rights Watch report released Thursday said that since January, about 13,000 newborns have died from malnutrition and
hunger-related diseases in Afghanistan and 3.5 million children need nutritional support.If the countries we import food from face a
challenge, we face a challenge,& said Masihullah.There is war between Russia and Ukraine, so we are affected … there is a high increase in
prices of oil and wheat.A U.K
pledging summit to be held later this month expects to raise $4.4 billion to stave off a worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, said
Thakral.Right now in Afghanistan, what we need to sustain is the attention on the people here,& she said.The post UN food agency alarmed by
Afghan food, fuel prices first appeared on Ariana News.
