Taliban contest UN report on malnourished women, children

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Saturday its goal was “to help all malnourished children and mothers”, after the United Nations warned that millions would experience acute malnutrition this year.

The World Food Programme’s Afghanistan director John Aylieff said this week that five million women and children would experience life-threatening malnutrition in a worsening crisis in the country of 40 million people.

The United Nations agency has said that nearly four million children would require treatment for malnutrition, a figure also supported by the UN-mandated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. “These numbers are staggering,” said Aylieff.

The Afghan public health ministry gave lower figures on Saturday, saying that there were “around three million children and mothers suffering from malnutrition”.

“About 1.3 million children are moderately malnourished, 700,000 suffer from acute malnutrition and 900,000 mothers are moderately to severely malnourished,” ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said.

The ministry said the number of facilities offering treatment for malnutrition had grown from “800 to 3,200”.

“Our goal is to reach all patients... and help all malnourished women and children,” Zaman said.

“We must distribute medicines, food and assistance with the help of international organisations,” he said, while also highlighting Afghanistan’s efforts “to produce the necessary resources internally”.

The WFP is seeking $390 million in an urgent appeal to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, although Aylieff described the chances of getting the funds as “bleak” after aid donations were slashed in recent years.