WFP Says Aid Cuts to Afghanistan Leave Millions Hungry This Winter

27/1/2025 19:06

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 Taliban 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 Taliban restrictions on women, including their order that Afghan female NGO employees stop work, and competing global crises.