Kabul, January 11 (RHC)-- United Nations figures show that malnutrition among Afghan children has increased more than 50 percent since 2012, with medical sources blaming the U.S.-led war for the crisis.

Hospitals across Afghanistan have been registering significant increases in severe malnutrition among children, according to an article in The New York Times. Severe cases have been reported in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Farah, Paktia and Paktika — all places where the U.S.-led war has destroyed people’s lives and pushed the poor over the nutritional edge.

Medical sources and aid workers have mainly blamed continuing war and refugee displacement for the hunger crisis. “In 2001, it was even worse, but this is the worst I’ve seen since then,” said Dr. Saifullah Abasin, the head of the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul.

The United States has spent nearly one trillion dollars on the unpopular war in Afghanistan, which has become the longest war in U.S. history. Experts point out that the U.S. military has used depleted uranium in the country and Afghan babies are being born with severe deformities. Exposure to depleted uranium causes genetic damage, birth defects, cancer, diabetes, immune system damage, and other serious health problems.