Afghanistan hunger crisis intensifies as millions left without food aid
The UN warns Afghanistan’s hunger crisis has worsened, with 14 million people facing acute food insecurity and funding shortages forcing aid cuts, leaving many without assistance.
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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that 14 million Afghans, including one in three children, now face acute food insecurity, the highest number ever recorded. Conflict, unemployment, rising food prices, and reduced humanitarian funding have deepened the crisis, with six million returnees from Pakistan and Iran straining an already fragile economy. WFP Country Director John Aylieff stated that job scarcity and trade disruptions have pushed staple food prices up by 20 to 30 percent, pricing out the poorest families.
WFP can currently assist only one in nine acutely hungry people due to funding shortages, with lifesaving nutrition programs scaled back as needs peak. Child wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, has reached critical levels in one-third of Afghanistan’s provinces, with 80 percent of severe cases involving children under two. NGOs report that many arrive at health centers too late to be saved, as funding gaps force aid agencies to turn away malnourished children and mothers without assistance.
The crisis is exemplified by families like Farida’s, a mother of three in Kandahar, whose husband earns less than a dollar a day. Her children suffer from anemia, and her six-year-old son has been too weak to attend school for months due to malnutrition. Farida relies on weak tea and bread, with no money for milk, and warns that without WFP support, her children would “undoubtedly die.” WFP’s clinics treat malnourished children and pregnant women, but funding cuts have forced the agency to prioritize only the most vulnerable.
WFP requires $900 million for 2026 to address Afghanistan’s emergency food and nutrition needs, with a critical $500 million shortfall for the next six months ahead of winter. Humanitarian agencies emphasize that deepening hunger exacerbates migration, instability, and regional consequences, as millions remain without food aid amid escalating malnutrition.