More than 10 years after U.S. military forces invaded Afghanistan, a recent report by the World Bank and Afghan government has acknowledged that children in the country suffer some of the worst levels of chronic malnutrition in the world. The report, released March 5, found that more than half the children younger than five years old are chronically malnourished in spite of billions of dollars in aid to the Karzai regime.
According to the report, widespread corruption is only part of the problem. It charged that malnutrition is exacerbated because disproportionate amounts of aid are funneled to areas where foreign troops are concentrated and fighting is more intense. In fact, hunger is rampant in poverty-stricken provinces that have seen less armed conflict but receive little aid.
The report comes on the heels of a February report by Amnesty International showing that approximately 500,000 Afghans have been displaced by the war, with an average 400 losing their homes every day.
