Afghan children, who retrieve recyclable items from the rubbish for a living, eat a rice meal in Jalalabad on June 30, 2013.
Noorullah Shirzada | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – At least one million children in Afghanistan will suffer severe acute malnutrition this year and could die without proper treatment, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore warned Monday.
“Nearly 10 million girls and boys depend on humanitarian assistance to survive,” Henrietta Fore said at a UN ministerial meeting on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.
Fore implored the international community and wealthy nations to help prevent further suffering after the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed virtually overnight last month and Taliban militants took control of the United Nations. country.
“Please help us,” he said. Fore’s statements come at a crucial time in the history of international aid to Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban took office on August 15, most developed countries in the West have frozen their direct aid to Afghanistan, fearing to hand over money to a militant Islamist regime that ruled the country with brutal force. 1996 to 2001.
Western countries see the frozen aid money in Afghanistan as a key lever in trying to pressure the Taliban to establish a government that respects individual rights, especially the rights of women and girls.
Meanwhile, groups like UNICEF are getting a second look at Western governments looking for ways to help the most needy citizens of Afghanistan without neglecting the Taliban government.
On Monday, the United States announced an additional $ 64 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, which will be delivered through groups such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Nearly 600,000 people, more than half of whom are children, have been displaced by conflict this year,” in Afghanistan, Fore said.
Fore also stressed UNICEF’s unique ability to operate in one of the world’s poorest and most warring countries.
“Unicef has been on the ground in Afghanistan for over 70 years,” he said, “we know what needs to be done for children. And we can achieve that.”
The Taliban capture of Afghanistan and the military withdrawal from the United States last month caused many international aid workers to leave the country, fearing for their safety.
But UNICEF stayed and did things, Fore said.
“In the last two weeks, we have provided drinking water to 170,000 people affected by the drought and deployed mobile sanitation equipment in 14 provinces to continue to provide basic health services for children and women,” she said.
“During the last week of August, UNICEF provided 4,000 severely malnourished children under five with life-saving therapeutic treatment and road missions have begun.”
It remains to be seen whether the newly formed Taliban government will allow international aid groups such as UNICEF to operate safely in the country.
But Fore insisted that life-saving aid, especially for children, should be seen outside the political boundaries that divide governments and nation states.
“We need to make sure that aid is not politicized: prioritizing funding decisions must be based on needs first. We need to look for ways to provide timely and sustained assistance on a scale,” he said.