Afghanistan Faces Exceptional Levels of Drought, Food Insecurity: UN

Geneva: UN officials and agencies on Tuesday spoke of exceptional levels of drought in Afghanistan affecting millions of people in the country. With 3.6 million living with chronic food insecurity, Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative for the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said it’s the “worst drought in a lifetime,” noting “it’s one step away from famine”, Xinhua news agency reported. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said at a later briefing that a series of airlifts have begun to western Afghanistan, bringing thousands of tents for people displaced by a mix of conflict and the ongoing severe drought. “Together the drought and ongoing conflict have seen over a quarter of a million Afghans being displaced in this region of the country since April,” said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch. Parker said some six million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance, over half of whom are children. She said the more than three million children are out of school, 60 percent of whom are girls. (IANS)