Afghan father forced to sell daughter as country starves

Afghans are struggling following the Taliban takeover last August

A father in Afghanistan has told ITV News that he wants to sell his daughter as he is no longer able to care for her. The country is experiencing a food crisis - not because there is a lack of produce in shops - but because millions of Afghans simply don't have the money to buy food. This has left some resorting to extreme measures. [caption id="attachment_312002" align="alignnone" width="1942"] Millions of Afghans are starving and relying on handouts from charities (credit: ITV News)[/caption] Sahib Khan was a teacher, and told ITV News correspondent, John Ray: "The Taliban say we have peace, but what good is peace when our children are sick and I have debt collectors at my door. "If someone will buy my daughter, then I will sell her." When asked what will happen if he sold his daughter, Khan responded: "There is nothing else I can do. I am not able to care for her." Ray witnessed the exhausted staff at one of Kabul's hospitals fighting to save the lives of desperately ill children. Just five months after the Taliban took hold of Kabul, 98 per cent of people in Afghanistan are not getting enough to eat, while 24.4 million people (more than half the population) face extreme hunger. Currently, 3.9 million children in Afghanistan face severe malnutrition which is up from 3.2m in October 2021. What's more, because of the lack of food, many mothers are giving birth prematurely. On one premature baby ward, babies are having to share the same incubator because of the number of premature births and the fact that some of the incubators don't work. [caption id="attachment_311989" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Two babies share the same incubator at a children's hospital in Afghanistan (credit: ITV News)[/caption] Related links:

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Melanie Galvin, chief of nutrition at UNICEF Afghanistan, said: "It’s as severe as any crisis I have ever seen. We are seeing a doubling of cases of severe acute malnutrition. We think this is just the beginning. It is only going to get worse." She added: "Unicef is working to bring supplies to all of the children everywhere." Taliban spokesman, Bilal Karimi insists the scale of the crisis is overplayed and that the US should release the $9 billion dollars of the country’s assets. "This money belongs to the people of Afghanistan. "The people you say are hungry and facing starvation. It is not right to attach conditions."