New research from Save the Children has found that one in 10 infants and very young children in Afghanistan is now suffering from acute malnourishment, a sudden and severe drop in weight or nutritional health over a short period of time.
The number of children at risk of malnutrition in Afghanistan is on the rise as essential health services close due to a lack of healthcare funding, the aid agency said on Thursday. Citing United Nations figures, Save the Children said nearly one in 10 Afghan children below the age of five is now in a state of malnutrition, and the proportion of children affected is rising, not stabilising.
The agency added that levels of acute malnutrition had worsened in two-thirds of provinces in the second quarter of 2026, compared with the same period last year. Over the past four years, acute malnutrition in children under five has surged by 14 percent, now affecting 3.7 million children in 2026.
Acute malnourishment, also referred to as wasting, is a life-threatening condition where a child is dangerously underweight for their height, due to a drop in food intake or severe illness, leading the body to rapidly lose fat and muscle.
Save the Children said the rise in malnutrition is largely down to a slowing of humanitarian aid in the country, which has forced about 600 essential healthcare facilities to close. About 4 million people, half of them children, were previously reliant on these services.
Over the past four years, humanitarian aid for Afghanistan has fallen by almost 70 percent, from $3.27bn in 2022 to $1bn in 2025. This follows the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 as the United States and allies withdrew. Since then, foreign aid has been limited. More than halfway through 2026, only $438m has been secured, leaving a 74 percent funding gap.
Save the Children said it has managed to keep 14 health clinics open, and that it is the only organisation providing healthcare to 10,000 people in the mountainous areas of northern Afghanistan.
Another complication is that Afghanistan’s population has increased by 12 percent since September 2023, largely as a result of more than six million Afghans being returned from Pakistan and Iran, as both countries tightened conditions for Afghan refugees and ramped up deportations.
“The world cannot look away. Severe hunger, the staggering number of returnees and mass internal displacement due to disasters, recent conflict and four years of drought are stretching limited humanitarian resources to the brink,” said Ashish Damle, country director for Save the Children in Afghanistan. “The international community now faces a choice: Continue responding only after families reach breaking point, or act early enough to protect children’s lives, rights and futures.”
Humanitarian aid to Afghanistan has fallen sharply over the past five years, largely because international donors retreated after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The Taliban takeover, which followed the withdrawal of US forces and the collapse of President Ashraf Ghani’s government, led many donors to limit or redirect funding, tighten sanctions, and impose stricter conditions on aid operations.
One specific issue is the Taliban ban on female humanitarian staff, which has severely restricted agencies’ ability to deliver aid and services to women and children. Lack of funding has also forced many organisations to close down or suspend programmes.
Before 2021, the US was Afghanistan’s largest aid donor, financing major development and reconstruction projects. Since the Taliban’s takeover, however, most US aid now goes through indirect channels, such as the UN or NGOs, and is a fraction of what it used to be. Furthermore, the Trump administration has radically cut foreign aid since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. The US also expanded sanctions on leading Taliban members and froze Afghan state assets held in the US.
Following the Taliban’s takeover, the European Union and World Bank have also halted large-scale reconstruction funding schemes and gradually restarted much smaller-scale, emergency-style programmes with humanitarian aid delivered through NGOs instead, experts say.
Source: www.aljazeera.com