The United Nations secretary-general has warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Secretary-General António Guterres urged the international community to provide “flexible and comprehensive funding” to the country in its “darkest hour of need.”
Guterres said he was “gravely concerned at at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country and the threat of basic services collapsing completely.”
He said almost half of the population of Afghanistan—18 million people—need urgent humanitarian assistance to survive.
“One in three Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from. More than half of all children under five are expected to become acutely malnourished in the next year. People are losing access to basic goods and services every day. A humanitarian catastrophe looms,”Guterres said.
Our commitment to the people of Afghanistan will not waver.
Yesterday we airlifted 12.5 metric tons of medical supplies into the country.
The international community must help ensure humanitarian workers have the funding, access & legal safeguards they need to do their work. pic.twitter.com/s3sgEyKVZg
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 31, 2021
The United Nations has “delivered aid to 8 million people” this year and delivered food to 80,000 people and relief packages to thousands of displaced families in the last fortnight, according to Guterres.