Hospitals overwhelmed as child malnutrition surges across Afghanistan

KABUL, 25 August 2026 - "Across Afghanistan, 3,7 million children are currently suffering from wasting - they are acutely malnourished, including around 1 million with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.

"It's a crisis which disproportionally affects the youngest and most vulnerable: nearly 40 per cent of children admitted to hospital with severe wasting and medical complications are babies under six months old. Children under two account for 83 per cent of severe acute malnutrition cases.

"We are already seeing immense pressure on hospitals: since the beginning of the year more than half a million children were admitted for high-risk moderate wasting and severe wasting. The severe acute malnutrition cases which were admitted with medical complications have risen by one third from the same time last year - 6,000 in July 2025 to 8,000 by July 2026.

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

"Behind these numbers are very young children and families.

"I have just returned from Nangarhar Regional Hospital in eastern Afghanistan. There, in the nutrition ward, I met a young mother and her 9-month-old daughter, Sagida.

"Sagida came from a remote village in neighbouring Nuristan province that was recently affected by massive flash floods. A UNICEF trained female community health worker found her there, suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and referred her to the hospital.

"When Sagida was first admitted, the doctors had little hope that she would survive. She weighed only 4 kg. But after receiving therapeutic milk, she has now stabilised. When I saw her two days ago, she was still very frail. She is not out of the woods yet, but she was getting stronger, and we are hopeful that she will make it.

"Sagida is one child.

"I witnessed similar stories in July, during my visit to the Regional Hospital in Kandahar, which serves 5 provinces in southern Afghanistan, where I saw many young children with complications from malnutrition being treated.

"These cases reflect a much bigger and increasingly alarming picture across Afghanistan. But today I also want to draw attention to something that happens before a child reaches a hospital bed.

"Last month, UNICEF released a new report, Too Little, Too Late: The Diet Crisis Facing Young Children in Afghanistan. For the first time at this scale in Afghanistan, UNICEF has looked at child malnutrition alongside what children are actually eating in their homes across all 34 provinces.

"And the findings are deeply concerning.

"Families begin cutting back on nutritious foods. Children eat fewer different types of food. Meals become smaller. Meals are skipped. And, eventually, some children go hungry.

"Half of Afghanistan's children are living in severe child food poverty. That means they are eating foods from just two or fewer food groups a day.

"And when children reach six months of age and should begin receiving nutritious complementary foods alongside breastmilk, the reality for many families is very different. A child's first foods may consist of little more than bread with tea or watered-down yoghurt.

"For a growing child, that is simply not enough.

"Our analysis shows that children living in severely food insecure households can be up to six times more likely to suffer from wasting during peak malnutrition periods. Wasting is one of the most dangerous forms of malnutrition. Put simply, it means that a child becomes dangerously thin for their height, often because they are not getting enough nutritious food, because they are sick, or because of a combination of both.

"Without timely care, it can become life threatening.

"Malnutrition in Afghanistan is not simply about a lack of food. A child who is already poorly nourished and then develops severe diarrhoea or a respiratory infection can deteriorate very quickly. And a child who repeatedly becomes sick is, in turn, much more likely to become malnourished.

"This year, these longstanding problems are being compounded by several additional pressures.

"Afghanistan has endured successive years of drought, followed by destructive heavy rainfall and flash floods. And with this year's super El Niño, these climate related shocks are projected to intensify.

"At the same time, regional instability is disrupting cross border trade and livelihoods. Six million people, more than half of them children, who have returned to Afghanistan since 2023 are putting additional pressure on jobs and household resources, as well as essential health and nutrition services which are already stretched to the limits. In Nangahar, I met these returnee families whose children were receiving care for malnutrition at the regional hospital.

"All of this is happening in a country, where families have limited opportunities for a livelihood.

"In southern Afghanistan, some hospitals are currently seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed. And even when we successfully treat a child, the story may not be over. Treatment saves lives. But treatment alone is not enough.

"When surviving children are sent back into households that still cannot afford nutritious food, lack clean water, or cannot access basic health services, we can frequently see relapses.

"This is why the new evidence from UNICEF matters.

"It gives us an opportunity to identify the warning signs earlier and to act before a child reaches the point of severe malnutrition. We need to protect the nutrition of women during pregnancy. We need to support breastfeeding. And when a baby reaches six months, we need to help families provide the diverse and nutritious foods that child needs to grow.

We also need health services, clean water and sanitation, immunisation services and social protection to work together around the same vulnerable families.

"UNICEF and our partners are working to do exactly that, including through our First Foods Initiative, with a particular focus on children between 6 and 23 months. But here we face a dangerous contradiction.

"At precisely the moment when the needs are increasing, the services available to children are being reduced due to funding cuts. More than 100 sites treating children with severe wasting have closed this year compared with 2025 because of resource constraints. Hundreds of other centres providing nutrition support to children and to malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women have also lost funding. And today, the Nutrition Sector response in Afghanistan faces a 57 per cent funding gap.

"For UNICEF, the situation is even more stark. Our nutrition programme in Afghanistan requires around $180 million this year. So far, it is only 22 per cent funded.

"And this is happening while the number of children needing our help is rising.

"So, the message I want to leave you with today is simple:

"We can see this crisis coming. We can see it in what children are eating. We can see it in the increasing numbers of very young children becoming malnourished. We can see it in overcrowded hospital wards where there are three or four sick children for every available bed. And we can see it in children like Sagida.

"Seeing a crisis coming also means we have an opportunity to prevent it from becoming much worse. We should not wait until a child is dangerously thin and lying in a hospital bed before we intervene. For that, UNICEF and our partners urgently need significantly more flexible and sustained funding.

"Because when it comes to malnutrition, acting early does not only save lives. It is also far more cost-effective than waiting until a child is severely malnourished and needs life-saving treatment.

"We know what is happening. We know which children are most at risk. And we know how to prevent this crisis from becoming much worse.

"But we need to act now."