1 million Afghan children face deadly malnutrition, UN says

One million children in Afghanistan have life-threatening severe acute malnutrition and could die without fast treatment, UNICEF warned on Aug. 25, 2026.

The UN children's agency said 3.7 million Afghan children suffer from wasting, meaning acute malnutrition. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF's Afghanistan country representative, told reporters from Kabul that more than 500,000 children have been admitted to hospitals so far this year for high-risk moderate and severe wasting.

Oyewale said severe acute malnutrition admissions rose from about 6,000 in July 2025 to more than 8,000 in July 2026. Nearly 40% of children admitted to hospitals with severe wasting and medical complications were babies under six months old, he said, and children under two make up more than 80% of severe acute malnutrition cases in Afghanistan.

In parts of southern Afghanistan, some hospitals are seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed, Oyewale said.

He said families are reducing nutritious food and that children can become trapped in a cycle of poor nutrition, diarrhoea or respiratory infections, and worsening malnutrition. He also cited successive years of drought, flash floods, regional instability, cross-border trade disruptions and pressure from the return of six million Afghans from abroad since 2023, more than half of them children.

UNICEF said treatment can save lives but services are being cut as needs rise. Oyewale said more than 100 sites treating children for severe wasting have closed since 2025. UNICEF's Afghanistan nutrition programme is estimated at $180 million this year and is 22% funded.

Afghanistan has faced repeated hunger emergencies in recent decades. An economic collapse followed the Taliban government's return to power after US-led forces withdrew in 2021.