KABUL, 13 November 2021, (TON): A United Nations Development Programme official media “with millions facing starvation and nearly the entire population teetering on the brink of poverty, Afghanistan could experience the worst humanitarian crisis “we’ve ever seen.”

Some 23 million people are in desperate need of food, the $20 billion economy could shrink by $4 billion or more and 97% of the 38 million population are at risk of sinking into poverty, Abdallah Al Dardari, the resident representative for the UNDP in Afghanistan, said. “Afghanistan is probably facing the worst humanitarian disaster we’ve ever seen,” Al Dardari told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

He said “we have never seen an economic shock of that magnitude and we have never seen a humanitarian crisis of that magnitude.”

Funding for the humanitarian crisis and for essential services is crucial to maintain lives and livelihood in the Central Asian country, he added. When the Taliban suddenly swept into power in August, world governments cut off Afghanistan’s access to international funding and froze the Afghan central bank’s roughly $10 billion in assets held abroad, in a bid to stop the hardline Islamists from accessing that money.

It led to a collapse in public finances, and many workers stopped receiving salaries, which extended pressure on the country’s banking system. The international community has yet to recognize the militant group as Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.

Pakistan hosted a meeting in Islamabad, with representatives from China, Russia and the United States, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.