The director of public health in the affected province of Ghor, Mullah Muhammad Ahmadi, told AFP that at least 17 children among those who arrived at the hospital had died of malnutrition in the past six months.
Nearly 300 of the effects of starvation were cured.
He said hundreds of children are at risk of starvation in central parts of Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Afghanistan said he could not confirm the number of deaths in Ghor, but feared that “many children will pay a heavy price”.
In turn, Salam al-Janabi of UNICEF said that the organization’s monitoring network was disrupted and was reliant on oral reports, adding, “We are sadly aware that this is something we are witnessing or almost.”
Since the Taliban came to power in mid-August, Afghanistan has plunged significantly into a severe humanitarian crisis from which it was already suffering.
The repercussions of drought, rising food prices and job losses were exacerbated by the interruption of international aid and funding.
The United Nations has warned that by the end of the year one million Afghan children under the age of five will need treatment for life-threatening “acute malnutrition”, while another 3.3 million will suffer from severe malnutrition.
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