After severe winter, floods threaten Afghanistan and Central Asia

An Afghan herder, Muhammad Amin, told the United Nation’s newsagency IRIN last month: “We don’t have fodder for our sheep. If we can’t sell them, they will die. This is the only income for my family. I have nothing else to feed them.”

An IRIN article on March 10 reported that communities in the Ajristan district of Ghazni were on the brink of starvation. A government official stated: “Many families in Ajristan are eating different kinds of dried grass and vegetables like alfalfa, which are normally given to cattle, due to food shortages and extreme poverty.” A local elder appealed: “Our children will die if we do not receive urgent assistance.” A similar situation probably exists in many other areas. Roads to more remote villages are still blocked by snow.