UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Afghanistan nutrition crisis

Story Shotlist More Info

Afghanistan’s hunger crisis intensifies as millions go without food aid – WFP

Afghanistan’s dire hunger crisis now affects 14 million people including babies fed on weak tea and a little bread by their despairing and dirt-poor parents.

In a new alert on Tuesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that one in three Afghans is now in the grip of acute food insecurity and that it lacks the resources to contain the deepening crisis.

Today, 12 provinces have now reached critical levels of acute child malnutrition, the highest number ever recorded.

Conflict, widespread unemployment, soaring food prices, shrinking humanitarian funding and disruption to supply routes are fuelling the crisis, WFP said.

The return of six million Afghans pushed back mainly from Pakistan and Iran since September 2023, has increased the strain on the country’s already fragile economy.

“In the past three years, close to six million Afghans have been forcibly expelled from neighbouring countries,” said John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan. Briefing journalists in Geneva from Kabul, he explained that there are “simply not enough jobs to sustain” the returnees.

“Conflict with Pakistan and the Middle East crisis have created trade disruptions, which have pushed up the price of staple foods by 20 to 30 per cent… The poor are being priced out of the market,” he explained.

Because of crippling funding cuts, WFP has been able to feed only one in nine of the 14 million people now acutely hungry in Afghanistan.

And as funding shortfalls deepen, lifesaving nutrition programs are being scaled back, just as needs are peaking.

Child-wasting - the deadliest form of malnutrition - has reached critical levels in one-third of the country's provinces. “The number of children being rushed to health centres is soaring and we're seeing this visibly. Eighty per cent of the worst cases are children under two years of age and NGOs report that too many of them are arriving too late to be saved,” warned Mr. Aylieff.

Shrinking humanitarian funding means that “millions of acutely malnourished Afghan children are being turned away without assistance at the very moment when their lives are at risk,” leading to “deaths, which of course are fully preventable”, he added.

During a recent visit to the province of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, WFP staff met Farida, a mother of three whose story reflects the plight of many of the country's poorest families. Her husband, an elderly street vendor, earns less than a dollar a day, leaving the family with no chance of affording nutritious food, healthcare, or other basic necessities.

Two of Farida's children suffer from anaemia, and her six-year-old son has been too weak to attend school for months, because of acute malnutrition.
“When we spoke to Farida, her baby started crying from hunger,” the WFP Country Director for Afghanistan said. “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 told WFP that she repeatedly has to tell her children that there is nothing more to eat. The family is barely surviving on tea and bread. Without the food assistance they receive through a WFP-supported clinic, she said her children would “undoubtedly die”.

“That's a hard message to hear,” said Mr. Aylieff. “But harder still when you realize that WFP is only funded this year to feed one in seven acutely malnourished women and children. Yes, we are turning away six out of seven and we're turning them away empty-handed with absolutely nothing,” he stressed.
WFP treats malnourished children aged under five and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in clinics across the country, in partnership with UNICEF. But a sharp decline in humanitarian funding has forced the agency to prioritize food assistance to only a fraction of the most vulnerable. The distribution of specialized nutritious foods to prevent malnutrition and stunting halted completely in May 2025.

The UN food agency warned that Afghanistan’s nutrition crisis is spinning out of control. WFP’s operations for emergency food assistance and nutrition programmes are costed at about $900 million for 2026. “We have not met needs in the first six months because we didn't have money. And when you look at the next six-month window, this critical window, not just because of the current crisis, but also in the run up to winter, which is the real flashpoint of hunger, WFP still needs $500 million to address the acute food needs in the country,” said Mr. Aylieff.

Humanitarians continue to highlight that deepening hunger fuels migration, radicalization and ultimately instability, with consequences that extend beyond Afghanistan's borders.

Ends

Story: “Afghanistan nutrition crisis - WFP” – Tuesday 04 August 2026

Speaker:

John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul)

TRT: 03’39”
SOURCE: UNTV CH

RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 04 August 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing

SHOTLIST

Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
Wide shot of the podium with speakers at the press conference room.
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): "In the past three years, close to six million Afghans have been forcibly expelled from neighboring countries. There are simply not enough jobs to sustain them. Conflict with Pakistan and the Middle East crisis have created trade disruptions, which have pushed up the prices of staple foods by 20 to 30 percent. The poor are being priced out of the market. And at present, close to 14 million Afghans are acutely hungry. In the past few months, crippled by funding cuts, the WFP has been able to feed only one in nine of them."
B-Roll of baby being measured and women at clinic – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): “It's a crisis which is getting worse by the day, and tragically, one which we are unable to contain. Child-wasting -the deadliest form of malnutrition- has reached critical levels in one-third of the country's provinces now. The number of children being rushed to health centres is soaring and we're seeing this visibly. 80 per cent of the worst cases are children under two years of age and NGOs report that too many of them are arriving too late to be saved.”
B-Roll of children and mothers at clinic – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): “This is actually a story of how conflict, trade disruptions and forced returns from neighboring countries are driving unprecedented levels of acute malnutrition in Afghanistan. It's a story of how dramatic aid cuts mean that millions of acutely malnourished Afghan children are being turned away without assistance at the very moment when their lives are at risk. And it's a story of how too many children are dying in Afghanistan of acute malnutrition today. Deaths, which of course are fully preventable.”
B-Roll of babies’ arm being measured at clinic – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): “When we spoke to Farida, her baby started crying from hunger. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle, a child's bottle. Now, 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.”
B-Roll of mothers and children at clinic – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): “Farida told us categorically that if they were not receiving WFP food at the clinic, her children would undoubtedly die. That's a hard message to hear, frankly, but harder still when you realize that WFP is only funded this year to feed one in seven acutely malnourished women and children. Yes, we are turning away six out of seven and we're turning them away empty-handed with absolutely nothing.”
B-Roll women receiving food for children and cash assistance – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP
SOUNDBITE (English) John Aylieff, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan (from Kabul): “Our program covering the malnutrition crisis and the general feeding is valued at about $900 million this year. We have not met needs in the first six months because we didn't have money. And when you look at the next six-month window, this critical window, not just because of the current crisis, but also in the run up to winter, which is the flashpoint, the real flashpoint of hunger, WFP still needs $500 million to address acute food needs in the country.”
WFP B-Rolls of UNICEF staff attending a mother with two children – CREDIT ON-SCREEN WFP