Desperate Afghans Resort To Selling Children Amid Economic Turmoil & Skyrocketing Food Prices

The dramatically increasing hunger in Afghanistan, fueled by an economic crisis has only gotten worse since the Taliban seized power in the country in August. 

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New Delhi: The situation of Afghanistan is worsening with each passing day as the new Taliban regime does not have the funds to even procure food items and other essentials. Desperate Afghans were forced to sell children to survive due to economic turmoil and surge in food prices, according to the Canada-based think tank International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS).

"There are reports that 95 per cent of Afghans do not have enough food to eat while half of the population is expected to face acute levels of hunger as winter sets in early November," IFFRAS said.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) release stated that the combined impacts of drought, conflict, COVID-19, and the economic crisis, have severely affected lives, livelihoods, and people's access to food. The report's findings come as Afghanistan's harsh winter looms, threatening to cut off areas of the country where families desperately depend on humanitarian assistance to survive the freezing winter months.

According to a DW report, a woman who worked as a government employee before the regime is now left without a job and is forced to sell household items to survive. 

“I have been unemployed for three months. I have sold all my household items and bought food items with the income,”  she said while adding she fears retribution from the Taliban.

Another government employee told DW who is struggling to make ends meet has resorted to begging in the streets, he told DW, “These former officials are unfortunately begging now, and some others have turned to daily-wage labour.”

According to an AP report, near-starving children are brought every day to the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul. The dramatically increasing hunger in Afghanistan, fueled by an economic crisis has only gotten worse since the Taliban seized power in the country in August. 

"It is urgent that we act efficiently and effectively to speed up and scale up our delivery in Afghanistan before winter cuts off a large part of the country, with millions of people - including farmers, women, young children and the elderly - going hungry in the freezing winter. It is a matter of life or death. We cannot wait and see humanitarian disasters unfolding in front of us - it is unacceptable!" said QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General reported ANI.

A UN aid said that by November a record 22.8 million people, more than half the country's population will face acute food insecurity. This data regarding acute hunger was revealed in a new report issued by Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster of Afghanistan, co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the UN World Food Programme (WFP).