THE United Nations food agency said today it must drop another two million hungry people from food assistance in Afghanistan this month due to a massive funding shortfall.

The action means that about 10 million people will be cut off from the agency’s support this year in the country, the World Food Programme said in a statement. 

The agency said that the cuts mean they will only be able to provide food assistance to about a fifth of the 15m people who need it in Afghanistan.

Hsiao-Wei Lee, the WFP’s director in Afghanistan, said: “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their next meal.

“With the few resources we have left, we are not able to serve all those people teetering on the edge of utter destitution.”

The Taliban have imposed harsh measures since seizing Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato forces pulled out after two decades of war.

Among their measures, the Taliban have prohibited Afghan women from working at local and non-governmental organisations.

The ban was extended to employees of the UN in April.

The Taliban has also put in place curbs on access to education and the right to travel for young girls and women.

Aid agencies have been providing food, education and healthcare support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover of August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed.

The measures have triggered a fierce international uproar, increasing the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed and its humanitarian crisis grows more grim.

In April and May, the WFP said it was forced to cut off 8m people from food assistance.

The cuts will also mean that 1.4m new and expecting mothers and their children are no longer receiving specialised food designed to prevent malnutrition, the programme said.