Babies are dying from starvation in Afghanistan a year on from Taliban takeover
- Samera, seven-months-old, is a victim of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
- Acute malnutrition is one of the biggest killers of children there under five
- Temor, 12, is her brother and lives with his mother Sonia, 36 and two brothers
The dark, saucer-like eyes of seven-month-old Samera stare out as a nurse cradles her head gently and cleans her desperately weak body.
She is one of the innocent victims of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, among many suffering from the effects of severe acute malnutrition, one of the biggest killers in children aged under five.
Her 12-year-old brother Temor is worried and feels helpless.
‘I would like bread and milk for my little sister,’ he says. ‘My mother and father are unemployed, and we have nothing to eat and nothing to drink. Sometimes we can find bread and sometimes we can’t.’
Seven-month-old Samera is one of the innocent victims of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
Temor lives with his mother Sonia, 36, two brothers and Samera in a single-room home in a remote community in northern Afghanistan.
Samera’s father has gone to Iran seeking work but they have not received any money.
Samera weighs just 8lb and her lifeline has been the Mobile Health Centre – one of 66 operated in the country by Save the Children – where she is being fed a special peanut-based paste which provides her with vital vitamins.
Food prices have skyrocketed and there is little or no work for adults in but Temor says: ‘I wish I was older so I could work and make money. I wish I could go to the mosque and to school.
‘We want our situation to improve. We want to have water here.’
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