Half of Afghanistan endures severe hunger throughout the year, regardless of the season, and malnutrition rates are at a record high for Afghanistan, said Phillipe Kropf, a spokesperson for the UN food agency in Kabul.

There are four million children (under the age of 5) and mothers who are malnourished, in a country with a population of 40 million.

At least 162 people died from extreme cold this month in Afghanistan, in the worst winter the country can remember in more than a decade, said Disaster Management Ministry spokesman Shafiullah Rahimi.

Afghanistan’s coldest winter in 15 years has recorded temperatures as low as -34oC amid an unprecedented severe economic and humanitarian crisis.

Recurrent natural disasters, chronic poverty and diseases, including Covid-19, along with the blockade of banking assets by the United States and other Western countries increased poverty in Afghanistan.

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