UNICEF: One Million Afghan Children at Risk of Dying from Malnutrition
UNICEF has warned that around one million children in Afghanistan are suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition amid a rapidly worsening crisis. The agency says urgent treatment is needed to prevent deaths.
The United Nations children's agency UNICEF warned on Tuesday that Afghanistan is facing a rapidly deepening nutrition crisis, with about one million children now at risk of dying from malnutrition. Across the country, 3.7 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, known as wasting, and at least one million of them have reached its most severe, life-threatening stage.
Speaking at a briefing in Geneva from his base in Kabul, UNICEF's country representative for Afghanistan, Tajudeen Oyewale, said that without fast treatment, that million children face a real risk of death.
A recurring crisis
Afghanistan has faced repeated hunger crises over recent decades due to civil war and other severe hardships. The country's economy collapsed after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led forces.
Infants hit hardest
Oyewale said nearly 40 percent of children admitted to hospitals with severe wasting and medical complications are babies under six months old, while children under two account for more than 80 percent of all severe acute malnutrition cases in the country.
He described malnutrition as playing a central role in the rising number of deaths among very young children. More than half a million children have required hospitalization so far this year for high-risk, moderate or severe wasting.
The scale of the increase is stark: around 6,000 cases were recorded in July 2025, but by July 2026 that number had risen by a third, surpassing 8,000. In parts of southern Afghanistan, Oyewale said, some hospitals are now seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed.
