SIX-AND-A-HALF MILLION children in Afghanistan will experience “crisis levels of hunger” this year, an NGO says.

Nearly three in 10 Afghan children will go hungry.

New figures from global hunger monitoring body Integrated Food Security Phase Classification forecast that 28 per cent of Afghanistan’s population, about 12.4 million people, will face acute food insecurity before October.

Arshad Malik, country director for Save the Children in Afghanistan, said that the NGO has treated more than 7,000 children for severe or acute malnutrition so far this year.

“Those numbers are a sign of the massive need for continuing support for families as they experience shock after shock,” Mr Malik said. 

Children are feeling the devastating impacts of three years of drought now followed by devastating floods, high levels of unemployment, and the return of more than 1.4 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran, he added.

“We need long-term, community-based solutions to help families rebuild their lives,” Mr Malik said.