UNICEF: Food crisis in Afghanistan

BAMYAN, Afghanistan, 9 December 2008 For the people of Afghanistan, its fast becoming one crisis too many. Already wrecked by war and insurgency, they are now battling a new force a food crisis in the harshest of seasons.
Even in Bamyan, one of the most peaceful of provinces in a deeply troubled country, violence further a field has hit home hard and theyre feeling it in their pockets and in their stomachs.
Villagers have stockpiled potatoes and whatever crops they can, but aid agencies are anxious that the food crisis will exacerbate child malnutrition. As it is, 67 per cent of Afghanistan children under the age of five are underweight with 54 per cent chronically malnourished amongst the highest rates in the world.
UNICEF, UN agencies and the government are prepared for the worst and have pre-positioned supplies but the security situation has meant that the humanitarian space is shrinking; access to areas in need has been cut off.

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