Yahoo Movies Aid Workers Are Rushing to Save Afghans amid Freezing Weather: 'Race Against Time'
Kathy Gannon/AP/Shutterstock Afghanistan freezing temperatures
Afghans have been teetering on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe in the months since the U.S. officially exited the country. Now, they face another threat: freezing weather.
The Associated Press reports that international aid organizations are rushing to save millions who face freezing to death or starvation due to lack of access to food and fuel.
Speaking to the AP, Shelley Thakral, spokeswoman for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan said the situation is "dire."
RELATED: A Baby Lost During Afghanistan Exit Has Been Found: 'There Are Celebrations'
"We're calling this a race against time," she told the AP. "We need to get to families in very difficult, hard to reach areas. It's winter, it's cold, the snow."
In a December news release, the WFP said the number of Afghan people turning to humanitarian aide is "immense."
"It is now winter, and with the economy spiraling out of control, the people of Afghanistan need our support more than ever. We are immensely grateful to the Korean Government and the people of Korea for their commitment to saving Afghan lives," WFP Afghanistan Country director Mary-Ellen McGroarty said in the release.
RELATED VIDEO: 9-Month-Old From Afghanistan Dies After Being Evacuated to the U.S.
A report led by the United Nations' World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization released last October found that 23 million people in Afghanistan — more than half its population — were projected to face acute food insecurity in the winter months.
The UN also estimates that nearly 3 million people in Afghanistan have been displaced from their homes due to drought, war and famine. With many of them now homeless, living in public spaces or tents erected outside, the situation is compounded by winter weather.
The AP reported this week that temperatures in some parts of Afghanistan in January and February can drop to lows of 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to the AP, the Taliban, who now has nominal control of the country, has not been interfering (and in some cases, has supplied security) as aid workers try to get rations of food and supplies to Afghans in need.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the weather has many Afghans choosing between food or warmth — opting to use the little funds they have to buy something to eat, or wood to burn.
"Everywhere we go, we find thousands more people who need help," a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva told the Post. "They haven't been driven from their homes, but they have lost their jobs, they have no savings, and their life systems are in collapse. They are not on our lists, but they come and wait outside the distribution sites, saying, 'What about us?' "
Sgt. Isaiah Campbell / U.S. Marine Corps via Getty
In April, President Joe Biden announced that all U.S. military troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 — 20 years after the 2001 terror attacks that touched off the country's longest war.
In the following months, the U.S. completed a full-scale withdrawal — one that led to the Taliban swiftly retaking the country's cities as they were met with little resistance from the Afghan army and its democratic government, which soon collapsed.
The Taliban's takeover led to scenes of chaos and panic at the Kabul airport in August as the U.S. evacuated personnel along with international allies like the U.K. As the evacuation ramped up, American military flights left the country packed in some cases with hundreds of people.
The last U.S. military plane left the region on Aug. 30, officially signaling the end of the war.
