Afghanistan hunger crisis deepens as child deaths mount and aid dries up

Three babies died within a week in the malnutrition ward of Badakhshan regional hospital in the northeast, a stark illustration of Afghanistan’s worsening hunger crisis. The youngest victims were Sana, a 3‑month‑old infant with malnutrition and acute diarrhoea; Musleha, 5 months old, with malnutrition and measles; and Mutehara, an 18‑month‑old who also showed severe malnutrition and illness. Hospital staff and families described the ward as overwhelmed as more children arrive in grave condition, underscoring how quickly hunger and disease are advancing in parts of the country.

At the Sheidaee settlement outside Herat, Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo led BBC reporters to the graves of their three sons — Rahmat, 1; Koatan, 7 months; and Faisal Ahmad, 3 months — who died in recent years from malnutrition. They showed the family plots in a graveyard that villagers say is relatively new and that contains many children’s graves. The couple spoke with the BBC while walking among the graves, recalling the moments of hunger that claimed their children. "Can you imagine how painful it's been for me to lose three children? One minute there's a baby in your arms, the next minute they are empty," Nazo told reporters. Ghulam added that watching his children cry with hunger felt like his body was on fire. "I hope every day that angels would somehow put my babies back in our home."

Two-thirds of the graves at Sheidaee are for children, a stark indicator of the toll on the youngest Afghans. The United Nations says nearly half of Afghanistan’s children under five are stunted, a reflection of chronic malnutrition. In Sheidaee and across the country, families report meals consisting of bread soaked in tea and small portions of what little food they can obtain. Rahila carried her 2‑year‑old Hibatullah, who cannot stand, while Durkhanee showed reporters her son Mohammad Yusuf, also nearly two and unable to stand. Nearby, others moved children in and out of mud‑and‑clay homes, trying to calm crying youngsters who have little to eat.

The malnutrition emergency is compounded by a severe drought that has slashed agricultural incomes in more than half of Afghanistan’s provinces, and by the forced return of more than two million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan, which has reduced remittances back to families. The World Food Programme (WFP) has described a sharp decline in aid to Afghanistan as a primary driver of worsening hunger. John Aylieff, the agency’s country director, said the year began with the largest rise in child malnutrition ever recorded in the country, and that the aid “lid” has now been lifted, allowing malnutrition to surge as food assistance declines. He warned that eight or nine other donors who funded WFP in the past two years have also reduced funding this year, in part because donors are responding to global crises and, in part, to political concerns about Afghanistan.

Those concerns extend beyond funding. Taliban officials have sought to frame the humanitarian dilemma as primarily the result of sanctions and reduced external aid. Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, told the BBC that while the government has expanded its own assistance, “Our budget is based on internal revenues, and we are facing sanctions.” He argued that the humanitarian response is hampered by external constraints, not by a lack of effort from the government.

The international response has grown more tangled as aid groups warn that Taliban policies—such as a ban on Afghan women working for NGOs—could undermine the delivery of life-saving assistance. The United Nations says the ban threatens access to essential services for mothers and children, especially in rural areas, complicating the work of agencies already stretched thin. Relief workers report that some hospitals and clinics are turning away patients because they simply do not have enough food, medicine, or staff to treat all who arrive.

The humanitarian crisis is also visible in the day‑to‑day struggles of families. Hanifa Sayedi’s 1‑year‑old son, Rafiullah, has been diagnosed with malnutrition, and the family struggles to feed him as they survive on sparse scraps. Hanifa says she sometimes soaks bread in Afghan green tea to make it easier for him to swallow, and she has even bought sleeping pills for herself to cope with the stress and hunger. Doctors have warned that giving such drugs to small children can cause serious harm, including heart and kidney damage, and can be life-threatening if used long term. In Herat and beyond, aid workers say they are retraining call handlers to cope with a growing number of distress calls from desperate women who fear they cannot feed their children.

In the Badakhshan regional hospital, the malnutrition ward has become a grim focal point for the country’s hunger crisis. A week after BBC crews documented the deaths of Sana, Musleha and Mutehara, hospital staff and families confirmed further tragedies linked to malnutrition and infectious illness. Zamira, the mother of Sana, said she feared for her baby’s life, describing how his blue‑tinged hands and feet signaled a failing heart and poor circulation. Zamira’s account underscores the fragility of life for children in these conditions, and the urgency of a sustained, well-funded humanitarian response.

Officials say the coming winter may worsen conditions, as colder temperatures increase the demand for fuel and food while reducing family members’ ability to work outdoors. WFP’s Aylieff warned that unless funding commitments are renewed, the program will have to start turning away malnourished women and children from health centers as early as November. He said, "WFP’s humanitarian funding will run out in November. At the moment, we are starting to turn away malnourished women and children from the health centres because we simply cannot afford to feed them. In November, we will stop unless we get a further injection of funding." He added that the situation will likely deteriorate without new funding, and that the current trajectory threatens to erase years of progress against child hunger in Afghanistan.

The breadth of the crisis is reflected in the sheer number of children affected and the rapid turn of events in hospitals and communities across the country. The Afghan experience is shaping a broader narrative about how sanctions, donor fatigue, drought, and internal policy choices interact to determine the fate of the most vulnerable populations. As winter approaches, aid agencies say time is running short to avert a deeper famine among Afghanistan’s youngest and most at-risk children, and to prevent further deaths that would be felt far beyond the clinics and cemeteries that now mark the country’s hunger crisis.