KABUL, June 26: A food shortage looms in Afghanistan if international donors do not provide more money immediately, warned James T. Morris, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, on Wednesday.

“Unless we get additional cash immediately, we could see malnutrition with the risk of starvation rising, especially in the highlands,” Morris said.

The WFP chief was in Kabul on a two-day visit, touring various WFP projects and meeting with government officials.

“Afghanistan still needs a lot of support from the international community.

‘‘The donor countries helped WFP prevent a famine in the past winter, and now their support has to be sustained if we are to avoid a crisis in the coming winter,” Morris said.

The WFP still faces a shortage of 175,000 tons of food worth around 102 million dollars.

“WFP had to cut down on various programmes over the past two months to cope with this shortage, focusing its limited resources mainly on the most vulnerable drought-affected population who would have otherwise starved,” Morris said.

WFP started a nine-month operation April 1 focusing on a gradual shift from relief to recovery, with particular emphasis on education, health, and the agricultural sector after July. An estimated 544,000 tons of food will be required for this project.

Over one million refugees have returned to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries during the past few months forcing WFP to cut by a third its food packages to returning families.—dpa