Attachments
In Numbers
15.3 million people are projected to be acutely food-insecure between May and October 2023, including 2.8 million people in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 4 (Emergency)
4 million people are acutely malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5
29.2 million people – two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population – require multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance in 2023
Highlights
• WFP has reached 4.4 million people in October with emergency food and cash assistance, nutrition support, school meals, and livelihood activities.
• Three 6.3-magnitude earthquakes and multiple aftershocks have struck Herat Province in western Afghanistan. WFP is on the ground providing food to affected populations and have reached 103,000 people with mixed food, and 26,200 people with fortified biscuits and specialised nutritious food.
• A surge of Afghan returnees from Pakistan crossed through the Torkham and Spin Boldak borders in October. WFP is providing food and nutrition support to the returnees.
Situation
• Herat, a province in western Afghanistan, was shaken by strong earthquakes with 6.3 magnitude in October. Dozens of villages were flattened, and more than 150,000 people were affected. At the same time, a dust storm swept through the same province, destroying hundreds of tents and displacing 300 families.
• An influx of Afghan refugees has flocked to the Afghan-Pakistan borders, with 8,000 arrivals recorded per day, and this figure is expected to rise. This comes after the Government of Pakistan’s directive that all undocumented migrants must leave the country by 1 November. The surge of vulnerable returnees will likely lead to a large-scale internal displacement and increased food insecurity. Almost all returnees (98 percent) are considered vulnerable and will require immediate assistance upon arrival.
Meanwhile, according to the inter-agency Border Consortium Appeal, out of the 1.3 million undocumented Afghans, 65 percent (720,000) are expected to require post-arrival assistance.
• Humanitarian needs are climbing amid an already dire funding environment. The arrival of Afghan returnees and the Herat earthquakes came at a time when WFP had been forced to cut assistance for 10 million people this year due to severe funding shortfalls. WFP has scaled down its operations since September and is saving up food to preposition as another harsh winter looms. WFP has been drawing down stocks in-country to respond to the Herat earthquakes and the Afghan returnees, which was initially earmarked for the winter prepositioning, hence needs to be urgently replenished.