A burqa-clad Afghan woman sits beside a girl, as they look for alms along a street in the Fayzabad district of Badakhshan province on Nov 16, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

KABUL - A total of 15.3 million Afghan people are projected to be acutely food-insecure between May and October, according to a situation report released by the World Food Program (WFP) Afghanistan on Monday.

According to the United Nations organization, 4 million Afghan people are acutely malnourished in the war-ravaged Asian country, including 3.2 million children under the age of five.

As several strong earthquakes and aftershocks struck the western Herat province in October, the organization has offered food aid to affected areas, with 103,000 people reached with mixed food and 26,200 people with fortified biscuits and specialized nutritious food, WFP Afghanistan said in its report.

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The organization also noted that it is providing food and nutrition support to a surging number of Afghan refugees returned from neighboring Pakistan.