Malnutrition cases up by 16% in southern Afghanistan: MSF

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported a 16% increase in malnutrition cases among children in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

MSF, the international aid organization in a tweet on Wednesday, May 17, expressed concerns over a 16 percent increase in malnutrition cases among the children in Helmand province.

Over the past four months, at least 1,061 malnourished children have been treated in Helmand province, according to MSF.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders has emphasized that a large majority of the Afghan population does not have the affordability to provide basic food for their families and are faced with critical challenges to reach hospitals for treatment.

According to the findings of MSF, malnutrition among children has increased by 32 percent compared to 2021 and a 16 percent compared to 2022.

One of the MSF doctors has described the investment of international aid in improving the healthcare facilities significantly important and explained the dire situation of a malnourished child, “his mother did not have milk and his family could not support to buy food, so the poor child was hungry the whole time.”

Earlier, OCHA, WHO and UNICEF had expressed their deep concerns about the high level of malnutrition cases in Afghanistan.