Over 13 million children in Afghanistan are in direct need of assistance, a senior official of UNICEF said, launching a $2 billion donation appeal—the largest for a single country in its 75-year- history — days after a report said around 13700 newborns have died since January this year.

Crippling western sanctions after the Taliban takeover of power in August last year, left the country's crucial sectors like education and health poorly funded. Prior to regime change, these sectors were entirely dependent on international donations. 

“Afghanistan is a tough place to be a child, there are huge challenges right now in being a child,” Sam Mort, UNICEF’s communication chief, was quoted as saying by TOLOnews. She said over 4 million children are out of school. 

“There are 13 million in need of humanitarian aid…. We know that 8 out of 10 people in Afghanistan are drinking water that is infected with bacteria,” she said, urging donors to fund the program which is currently operating with just 15 percent fund. 

Last week, a report by the World Food Program (WFP) estimated that around 95 percent of Afghans are not getting enough food, and 3.5 million children are in urgent nutrition treatment. A hospital in the southern province of Helmand, HRW said in its latest report, was alone treating over 800 children, all suffering from acute malnutrition.  

Amid an almost stalled economy with a barely functional banking system, the humanitarian requirement is increasingly expanding at an alarming pace by the day. “At the moment it is only 15 percent funded, so we are urgently asking our donors for more funding," Mort said in its donation appeal. 

Furthermore, there is a real fear of resource crunch as the focus of the world and major donor countries in the West now rests on the war in Ukraine and the refugee crisis it has brought there. Last year, Afghanistan was the only country requiring over $4 billion in humanitarian assistance. 

Just three months into the year, we now already have three countries—Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Yemen— with estimated humanitarian needs, each running over $4 billion, according to UN aid agencies.

(SAM)