TOP OF THE AGENDA

The hospital struggling to save its starving babies

The eerily silent hospital ward had 18 toddlers in seven beds. Credit: BBC/Imogen Anderson

Afghanistan's children have suffered from acute malnutrition for decades, starving in a country plagued by 40 years of war and extreme poverty. But after three years of Taliban rule, with international funds curtailed by economic sanctions, "the situation has now reached an unprecedented precipice", writes Yogita Limaye from Jalalabad. She reports from a hospital ward in the eastern city, where more than three children have died every day for the past six months, according to the Taliban’s public health department. What she witnesses is harrowing - mothers weeping, tending to their babies, when many of them have already lost multiple children to hunger. "All I can feed them is dry bread, and water that I warm up by keeping it out under the sun," Amina says, looking over seven-months-old Bibi Hajira, who is seven months old, but the size of a newborn. On the bed next to her, one-year-old Asma has gone into septic shock – she died shortly aftewards. They These are only just two of the 3.2 million children in a state of acute malnutrition in the country.

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• Listen: Afghan women tell the BBC what three years of increasingly harsh restrictions have meant for their lives and ambitions.  

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• The basics: Here's what you need to know about the country that was overtaken by the Taliban in 2021, after the withdrawal of US troops. 

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• In Sudan: Children in the northeastern African country are also suffering from extreme hunger, Unicef said in June.

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