Geneva: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) revealed on Monday that it plans to expand its activities in Afghanistan to include millions of children in need of urgent assistance, demanding to be allowed to reach these children throughout the country.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in statements that additional activities in Afghanistan will include distributing food and drinking water, and providing medical care to hundreds of thousands of displaced families, explaining that life-saving programs will be expanded there.
"We hope to expand these operations to areas that could not previously be reached because of insecurity," Fore said.
"Today, around 10 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive. An estimated 1 million children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the course of this year," she added.
UNICEF fears the increasing difficulties in Afghanistan due to the ongoing severe drought and consequent water scarcity, the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many people to lose their livelihoods, and students have stopped going to school, in addition to economic and security difficulties that have contributed to the high rates of poverty.
