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Taliban offers wheat in exchange for labour as UN agency warns of acute food crisis | World News

Taliban offers wheat in exchange for labour as UN agency warns of acute food crisis | World News
  • Published10월 26, 2021

Amid deepening economic crisis and millions facing emergency levels of hunger, the Taliban’s interim government has reportedly launched a programme offering wheat to thousands of people in exchange for labour. The Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference that the programme will be rolled out in major Afghan towns and cities, with an aim to employ 40,000 men in Kabul alone, reported Dawn. The report suggests that the unemployed labourers who are most at risk of starvation will be offered wheat instead of money.

“This is an important step for fighting unemployment,” Dawn quoted Zabihullah Mujahid as saying, adding that the labourers must “work hard”.

A new UN report showed that nearly 19 million people in Afghanistan experienced high levels of acute food insecurity during the two months of the post-harvest season, a nearly 30% rise from the same period last year. The report also predicted that more than half the population of Afghanistan will face acute food insecurity from November 2021 to March 2022. 

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The collapse of public services, a severe economic crisis and increasing food prices were among the major reason for the food insecurity.

”We cannot allow Afghanistan to be a collective failure – the international community must prevent the crisis from becoming a catastrophe,” the World Food Programme said in a statement.

”Things were already desperate, and now continuing drought, escalating displacement, the collapse of public services, and a deepening economic crisis have driven the entire country to the precipice,” it added.

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Referring to the report, David Beasley, WFP executive director, highlighted that Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises and food security has all but collapsed. He warned that millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless the UN agencies step up life-saving assistance and the economy is resuscitated.

“We are on a countdown to catastrophe and if we don’t act now, we will have a total disaster on our hands,” Beasley added.

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