GENEVA: The United Nations refugee agency called on Afghanistan's neighbours to keep borders open as Taliban insurgent advances heightened the country's crisis.

"An inability to seek safety may risk innumerable civilian lives. UNHCR stands ready to help national authorities scale up humanitarian responses as needed," a spokesperson for the agency told a briefing in Geneva.

The World Food Programme sees food shortages in Afghanistan as "quite dire" and worsening, a spokesperson added, saying the situation had all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe.