MONITORING (SW) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Afghanistan, Muhammad Ag Ayoya, has said that 17 children had been killed in just two days in the country.
He noted on Twitter that on Wednesday and Thursday last week, 16 children were killed in explosions in Balkh and Kabul and one more in Uruzgan as a result of war explosives. “Our sincere condolences go out to the families and friends of those killed. Children should never pay the price for the conflicts of adults. Children must be protected at all times”, he tweeted.
Earlier this month, UNICEF said 9.6 million children in Afghanistan are starving every day due to the economic collapse, the current drought in the country and the effects of the Ukraine war.
The organization said in a report that immediate food aid was needed to save lives in the short term, but was not enough to tackle Afghanistan’s worst hunger crisis.
Despite the significant amount of food aid distributed to families in Afghanistan in recent months, 19.7 million children and adults, or about 50 percent of the population, are still hungry and in need of immediate support to survive, it added.
According to the report, from March to May alone, 20,000 people went hungry.
The report also said that Afghan children are being hurt by the policies of the international community due to the freezing of the country’s assets, as poverty, unemployment and food prices have risen sharply, forcing families to take desperate steps to feed their children
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