Aid official: Afghanistan’s crises get ‘progressively worse’

By LEE KEATH
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A senior international aid official says Afghanistan is being hit by multiple crises that are “progressively getting worse,” with drought, economic collapse and displacement all pushing the population into catastrophic hunger. Alexander Matheou, Asia-Pacific regional director for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Thursday that the onset of winter will only increase the pain for Afghans and drive some closer to disaster. United Nations figures from early November show almost 24 million people in Afghanistian, around 60% percent of the population, suffer from acute hunger. That includes nearly 9 million people who live in near-famine.