Afghanistan faces record hunger levels amid rampant rights violations — UN News

Acute malnutrition and hunger in Afghanistan have reached the highest levels ever recorded, with 15.9 million people facing acute food insecurity and conditions set to worsen in the coming months, according to a global hunger monitor report released on Thursday. UN agency heads are calling for emergency support to stem the crisis, as a separate report details serious human rights violations – from public floggings to a new ban on demonstrations. Record acute malnutrition levels for the August–October period have seen hunger levels grow for millions of Afghans – according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative aimed at informing decisions based on five phases of food security. Economic pressures are straining households nationwide, contributing to more than 32 per cent of the population facing crisis-level acute food insecurity phase three or above, including 3.4 million people experiencing emergency phase four conditions. The current deterioration is driven by disease outbreaks and inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, compounded by sharply reduced access to nutrition services, the report found. The situation is expected to worsen from November to April during the winter lean season, when nearly 19.2 million people are projected to face phase three or above, including five million people in emergency food insecurity conditions. Acute malnutrition is also set to grow significantly, with 4.04 million…