Too weak to crawl: Afghan children face the risk of starving to death

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In Afghanistan, the number of malnourished children has increased, with children at clinics unable to crawl or stand due to famine.

Millions of Afghan children are struggling to survive severe food shortages during a harsh winter and economic crash, as international aid was cut off following the hasty withdrawal of US occupation forces.

Read More: Is This the Fall of US Strategy in Afghanistan?

The little faces of Afghanistan

Due to the inability to obtain essential basic foods as a result of ongoing poverty, most Afghan mothers had their breast milk dried up in a short period of time.

Even before the hasty US withdrawal, last August, poverty and food insecurity were widespread due to back-to-back droughts, economic decline, US occupation, and the pandemic.

What exacerbated the crisis?

The frozen Afghan assets by the US Treasury, coupled with the country's abstinence from providing support amid Afghanistan's long and cold winter, has only exacerbated the crisis. And today, things got even worse. Following the US freezing of assets of Afghanistan's Central Bank, Joe Biden signed an executive order releasing $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds only to be shared between humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 victims' families. 

The Taliban movement slammed the US decision to split the Afghan funds as a showcase of theft and US moral decline, Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban political office, said.

It is worth noting that at least one million Afghan children under 5 are at risk of starving to death, according to UNICEF.

Anadolu news agency spoke with families of sick children and doctors in the region, where children aged 2 and 3 in clinics are as small as infants.

Babies are too weak to crawl, stand, or walk. They appear to be bearing the burden of US occupation.