OREANDA-NEWS. In Afghanistan, due to the ongoing crisis, millions of children are suffering from hunger, the impending winter will become a deadly threat to a large number of Afghan boys and girls, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement released on Tuesday, October 12, in Cologne on the occasion of the opening consultations of the G20 countries on Afghanistan.

According to the latest UNICEF estimates, by the end of the year, about 3.2 million Afghan children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition, about a million of them may die. In general, about 10 million Afghan children need humanitarian assistance, the report says.

The situation remains particularly difficult in rural areas of Afghanistan — many medical institutions do not work here, the situation is aggravated by drought, violence, the coronavirus pandemic, outbreaks of measles and other diseases. «The plight of children in many areas will only worsen in the coming winter if the health system is not quickly stabilized, and children in need urgently do not receive the most necessary things», warned Christian Schneider, head of the German branch of UNICEF.