INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan says the agency can only feed half the millions of Afghans in need after cuts in
international aid and an impending freeze in U.S
foreign funding.Many people were living on just &bread and tea&, WFP Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters.Afghanistan was tipped to
the brink of economic crisis in 2021 as the Islamic Emirate took over and all development and security assistance to the country was frozen,
with restrictions also placed on the banking sector.Since then humanitarian aid & aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit
organisations and bypassing government control & has filled some of the gap
But donors have been cutting steadily in recent years, concerned by IEA restrictions on women, including their order that Afghan female NGO
employees stop work, and competing global crises.Lee told Reuters shortly before finishing her three-year term in Afghanistan that funding
cuts had meant that roughly half the 15 million Afghans in acute need of food were not receiving rations during this year&s harsh
winter.&That&s over 6 million people who are probably eating one or two meals a day and it&s just bread and tea,& she said in an interview
&Unfortunately this is what the situation looks like for so many that have been removed from assistance.&Afghanistan&s humanitarian plan was
only just over half funded in 2024, according to U.N
data, and aid officials have flagged fears this could fall further this year.The U.S
State Department issued a &stop-work& order on Friday for all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to a cable reported
by Reuters, after President Donald Trump ordered a pause to review if aid allocation was aligned with his foreign policy.It was not
immediately clear how that would impact Afghanistan&s humanitarian operations, which in 2024 were over 40% funded by the United States, the
largest donor.&I think any potential reduction in assistance for Afghanistan is of course concerning…whether it is assistance to WFP or
another actor,& Lee said.&The levels of need are just so high here in Afghanistan
I certainly hope that any decisions made, any implementation of decisions made take into consideration the needs of the people & the women,
the children,& she said.Western diplomats and humanitarian officials have said aid is dropping to Afghanistan in part due to global
emergencies in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza and also because of concerns with IEA restrictions on women.Lee said the operating environment had
been a &rollercoaster& in the last three years, but that WFP was trying to prove to donors concerned about the plethora of restrictions on
women that they were still reaching female beneficiaries and their children with aid. The post WFP says aid cuts to Afghanistan leave
millions hungry this winter first appeared on Ariana News.
