Mazar-i-Sharif: Hunger And Despair In The Camps

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Even if food arrives in time, it's too late to build shelters: mud walls need three weeks of warm sun to dry, and that won't come until spring. Of the 6 million in need, 3.4 million live in the north. "There has been a humanitarian crisis here for years," says Goetghebuer. "Now it's becoming a disaster."

Sah Mohammed, 75, has already watched a daughter-in-law, a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old grandson starve in Dehdadi. By day his wife works as a baker in the city, returning with a few carrots or turnips that she divides between her remaining family of eight. "I used to be fat. I had a great fat neck," Sah Mohammed says, rubbing his scrawny nape. "After a while we ate leaves, but even those are gone now. Hunger has taken everything from us. Our family, our neighbors, our lives--and our hope."

--By Alex Perry/Mazar-i-Sharif