A man stands in his field where he used to grow wheat in Hachka, Afghanistan, on Dec. 13, 2021.
Photographer: Mstyslav Chernov/AP PhotoClimate Change Is Making Afghanistan’s Hunger Crisis Worse
The worst drought in two decades, punishing sanctions and soaring wheat prices due to the war in Ukraine are making food insecurity more severe
Drought had already devastated Allawddin Rahimi’s wheat fields when the Taliban reached his village in northern Afghanistan. The group’s takeover left him with no choice but to flee.
“I wasn’t worried about the Taliban return as much as I was worried about the drought that dried up our only revenue and source of food,” Rahimi, 37, said from the port city of Bandar Abbas in neighboring Iran, where he arrived in November to search for a job. He now earns about $3.50 a day as a laborer on a construction site, which he sends home to support a family of seven in Afghanistan’s Balkh province.