UN agency cuts Afghanistan food rations as donations dry up --- World Food Programme says cuts will affect up to one million of the 3.7 million Afghans it helps to feed --- Funding shortfalls have forced the World Food Programme to cut rations for up to a million people in Afghanistan, an early sign that aid money may dwindle as the international combat mission winds down. -- The UN food assistance agency, which runs on donations from member countries, faces a gap of about $30m (£19m) for its programme in Afghanistan, said country director Claude Jibidar. --“We have had to cut down the rations of the people we are assisting, just so that we can buy some time so we don’t stop altogether,” he said. -- Jibidar said the cuts, to 1,500 calories a day from 2,100, would affect up to one million people, many of whom had to flee their homes because of the escalating war between the Taliban insurgency and the western-backed Afghan government. -- For those displaced by the war, the prospect that food aid could stop is grim. “If the food rations get stopped, we will die of hunger,” said Bibi Fatima, who lives with eight family members in a mud hut on Kabul’s eastern outskirts. -- The family was forced to flee their home in Helmand, a southern province where fighting has been fierce, and they have no income except what Fatima’s grandchildren bring in from begging on the streets. She said she had received food from a UN agency in past winters and was counting on help this coming season. “We don’t have firewood and food to eat. If our children get sick, we have no money to treat them.” -- With Afghanistan’s harsh winter looming, Jibidar said the WFP had only about six weeks left to deposit advance stores of food meant to supply mountainous areas that usually get cut off for months at a time. -- Afghanistan has been the recipient of tens of billions of dollars in aid since 2001, when the Taliban regime was toppled by a US-led invasion. The WFP helps to feed a total of 3.7 million Afghans, or about 10% of the population. -- With most foreign combat troops due to withdraw at the end of this year, many humanitarian groups fear that aid flows will dry up as donors focus on other crises, including combating the Ebola virus and helping refugees from the wars in Syria and Iraq. -- Already there are signs of Afghanistan fatigue among donors. This year’s UN humanitarian appeal for the country is $158m short of the $400m target. - Read More, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/world-food-programme-cuts-rations-afghanistan