They have flocked to the bigger towns and cities or crossed the border into Iran and Pakistan. For the most part, help is not on its way. The United Nations and many relief organizations have had trouble raising money for assistance. Afghans have been at war for 22 years, first in an epic resistance against Soviet troops, then in factional, back-stabbing combat against each other. Most of the nation is now ruled by Taliban mullahs who offend the West with their stern interpretations of Islam and their unflagging hospitality to the accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Nations donating aid are also skeptical about the dimensions of the crisis.
For now, estimating the endangered population involves guesswork, with most presumed victims living in remote villages, unreachable by aid workers either because of the winter or the war. Then as well, in Afghanistan it is often hard to distinguish between the bad times and the worse. Even without famine, more than one in four children die before the age of 5 and the average life expectancy is 44. Hunger has become a helpmate to other causes of death. What we are seeing are displaced people pouring in, but they're actually the better off.