Afghanistan hunger crisis intensifies as millions left without food aid

Afghanistan’s hunger emergency now affects 14 million people, with one in three Afghans facing acute food insecurity and only one in nine receiving assistance, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on 4 August 2026, according to a press release. Briefing journalists in Geneva from Kabul, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan John Aylieff said child malnutrition has reached record levels across 12 provinces. Babies are being fed little more than weak tea and bread by their dirt-poor parents. WFP said it lacks the resources to contain the deepening crisis. The agency requires $500 million before winter to avert further deterioration.

Conflict, widespread unemployment, soaring food prices, shrinking humanitarian funding, and disruption to supply routes are driving the crisis, WFP said. The return of six million Afghans, pushed back mainly from Pakistan and Iran since September 2023, has added strain to an already fragile economy. “In the past three years, close to six million Afghans have been forcibly expelled from neighbouring countries,” Mr. Aylieff said. He explained there are “simply not enough jobs to sustain” the returnees. Trade disruptions from conflict with Pakistan and the Middle East crisis have pushed staple food prices up by 20 to 30 percent.

Child wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, has reached critical levels in one-third of the country’s provinces. Eighty percent of the worst cases involve children under two years of age, and NGOs report that too many arrive too late to be saved. Because of funding cuts, WFP has been able to feed only one in nine of the 14 million acutely hungry Afghans. Lifesaving nutrition programs are being scaled back just as needs peak. The distribution of specialized nutritious foods to prevent malnutrition and stunting halted completely in May 2025.

During a recent visit to Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, WFP staff met Farida, a mother of three whose husband, an elderly street vendor, earns less than a dollar a day. Two of her children suffer from anaemia, and her six-year-old son has been too weak to attend school for months due to acute malnutrition.

“When we spoke to Farida, her baby started crying from hunger,” Mr. Aylieff recounted. “She reached into her bag and pulled out a child’s bottle. Normally, you expect the child’s bottle to be full of milk. This one only had weak tea in it. There was simply no money in the household for milk.”

Farida said her children would “undoubtedly die” without WFP-supported clinic assistance.

WFP treats malnourished children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in clinics nationwide, in partnership with UNICEF. The agency is funded this year to feed only one in seven acutely malnourished women and children, turning away six out of seven empty-handed. WFP’s operations for emergency food assistance and nutrition programmes are costed at about $900 million for 2026, with $500 million still required for the next six-month window ahead of winter, the real flashpoint of hunger. Humanitarians continue to highlight that deepening hunger fuels migration, radicalization, and ultimately instability. The consequences, they warn, extend beyond Afghanistan’s borders.