UN warns US aid cuts threaten millions of Afghans with famine

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Program, which warned it can support just half the people in need -- and only with half rations.

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In an interview with AFP, WFP’s acting country director Mutinta Chimuka urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world’s secondlargest humanitarian crisis.

A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.

“With what resources we have now barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that’s only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors,” Chimuka said. The agency already has been

“giving a half ration to stretch the resources that we have”, she added.

In the coming months, WFP usually would be assisting two million people “to prevent famine, so that’s already a huge number that we’re really worried about”, Chimuka said.