In response to the worsening humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia has taken the timely decision to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which Pakistan has offered to host, on Dec. 17. As the representative body of 57 Muslim countries, the OIC must come to the rescue of hapless Afghans, especially when the rest of the world has left them at the mercy of winter. But Afghanistan is a global problem that cannot be solved with the expression of Muslim solidarity alone.

The scale of the disaster in the war-torn nation is extremely disturbing: The World Food Program estimates that up to 23 million Afghans — more than half the population — may not have enough to eat by the end of this month. With drought, pandemic and conflict, the food security situation will continue to worsen; hunger will increase and the economy will collapse. The rest is easier to fathom.