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UN seeks billion to stop 'catastrophe' in Afghanistan

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 1/13/2022 8:50:38 PM

NEW DELHI, Jan 12: The United Nations has asked international donors for $5 billion to fend off a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.

Five months after the Taliban seized power, a severe drought and the toll of decades of war have plunged three-quarters of the country’s population into acute poverty, according to the U.N., which said it was starting its biggest appeal ever for a single country.

The new appeal will test donors’ willingness to support Afghanistan under Taliban rule, The New York Times reported.

“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s emergency aid coordinator, said. Without international aid, a million children face acute hunger and another eight million people face “a march to starvation, and ultimately even possible famine,” he continued.