Kabul, July 28 : Some 24.4 million people in Afghanistan, including 13 million children, are in immediate need of humanitarian aid, a study by the UK-based Save the Children NGO revealed. In the study released on Wednesday, 18.9 million people, including 9.2 million children in Afghanistan, are anticipated to experience an emergency or critical food insecurity between June and November 2022, reports Khaama Press. Save the Children's study cited the UN Development Program stating that 97 per cent of the Afghan population faces the prospect of living in poverty and falling below the poverty line. Acute malnutrition affects 1.1 million Afghan children under the age of five, according to the report. Covid-19, measles, acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), and dengue fever are among the numerous disease emergencies Afghanistan is currently dealing with. A significant contraction of the economy, rising poverty, and financial instability, as well as high unemployment and high food and agricultural input prices, have been caused by the rapid drop in international grant support, loss of access to offshore assets, and disruption of financial links, says Save the Children. With the Taliban running the country, Afghanistan's unstable economy is impacted by the group's political isolation and economic sanctions, which exacerbated the country's already-impoverished citizens' poverty, unemployment, and hunger. /IANS