Hunger Producing Premature Babies in Afghanistan

Since the U.S. and coalition forces pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban regained control, hunger has dramatically increased in that nation (Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2022). Half the country’s population—about 20 million people—are facing conditions of acute hunger as the economy continues to collapse following the Taliban takeover and the Western sanctions that have followed. While Taliban officials blame drought from God for the famine, there are additional challenges. Relief efforts are complicated by the sanctions and the government’s lack of international recognition, and the Taliban has focused most of its resources toward military control rather than relief efforts. Food prices are soaring, and many must choose between food, fuel, or medicine.

Extreme hunger has many consequences. Pregnant mothers are giving birth prematurely to babies with very low birth weights. “The Wardak provincial hospital’s director in Maidan Shahr, Muhammad Nadir Rahmani, said the hospital is seeing the birth weight of babies reduce alarmingly, as the bodies of malnourished mothers are unable to carry their children to full term.” Many of these little ones are too premature to live. Breastfeeding mothers who lack food lose their milk supply and cannot feed their own infants. As one mother said, “We have always been poor, but things have gotten so bad I don’t have words to describe it.”

Many other nations around the globe, especially in the horn of Africa, are also experiencing extreme hunger (UN News, February 8, 2022). Sadly, it is often the youngest who are hardest hit. While many in the Western world suffer from “first-world problems”—such as not having their favorite brand available at the grocery store—those in developing nations are far worse off. Such conditions should move us to “sigh and cry” for the suffering we see in the world around us and pray that God will hasten the return of Jesus Christ to set up the Kingdom of God that will bring peace and abundance—and an end to hunger. To learn more about signs of the end of the age, be sure to read “The Black Horse of Famine.”