Dying kids turned away because of cuts

At a malnutrition treatment centre in Afghanistan's capital, the cries of children have given way to a heavy silence, as patients are turned away and medical staff laid off due to US aid cuts.

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Kabul - At a malnutrition treatment centre in Afghanistan's capital, the cries of children have given way to a heavy silence, as patients are turned away and medical staff laid off due to US aid cuts.

Entirely funded by Washington, the project had to shut down when the US - until recently the largest aid donor in Afghanistan - froze all foreign assistance.

The many children who came to the centre won't be treated now, said Cobi Rietveld, country director for the non-governmental organisation Action Against Hunger (ACF), which manages the clinic in the west of Kabul.

"If they don't get treatment, there's an extreme high risk of dying," she said.