60pc Afghan children facing malnutrition: WFP

The World Food Programme on Wednesday said 60 percent children were reportedly faced with malnutrition in Afghanistan alone, with over 842 million individuals lacking adequate food around the world. “While security issues related to insurgency and foreign aggression monopolize most discourse in Afghanistan, a lesser noted form of insecurity – food and nutrition shortage – also threatens the country's prosperity,” a WFP statement said. It said the WFP worked extensively in Afghanistan along with a number of other countries in the South Asian region. "WFP works with the Ministry of Public Health and other partners to treat moderate acute malnutrition and prevent severe acute malnutrition in young children," said Claude Jibidar, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan. "We also provide specialised nutritious food to malnourished mothers and pregnant women." The statement said investment in food security by national governments and the international community as a whole was extremely limited. The WFP said if the international community invested 1.2 billion dollars annually, which is far less than what is spent by many Western governments on their militaries year-to-year, the shortage of food for kids worldwide would be completely solved.