UN food agency official alarmed by Afghan food, fuel prices

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An official with the U.N. food agency warned Friday that with Russia’s war in Ukraine taking an increasing toll on the global economy, the ripples of that conflict will further increase food and fuel prices in the desperately poor Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, Afghanistan has been sinking deeper into poverty and economic crisis. As many as 95% of the country's 38 million people don’t have enough to eat or money to buy the food.

Shelley Thakral, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said that food prices in Afghanistan rose nearly 40% over the last eight months. The WFP has spent $1 billion feeding millions of Afghans this year but needs another $1.6 billion, Thakral added.

“The worrying thing, I think and this includes Afghanistan as well as all the other hunger spots across the world, is the rise in food and fuel prices,” said Thakral.

So far, donor countries have not sidelined Afghanistan but she said they “have to dig deeper" as Europe deals with the shockwaves after more than 3 million refugees fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion Feb. 24.

Thakral's remarks echoed those of U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi, who warned during a visit to Kabul on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine war could siphon off money from humanitarian crisis elsewhere, including in Afghanistan, and that soaring food prices could cripple humanitarian efforts.

While most of Afghanistan's wheat supplies come from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Thakral said the increasing food and fuel cost as a result of the war could add up to 20% to the costs of providing humanitarian assistance.

When the Taliban swept to power, international donor money, which paid more than 80% percent of Afghanistan's bills, dried up and the country's economy went...