Nearly 3 out of 10 children in Afghanistan face crisis or emergency level of hunger

ISLAMABAD– Around 6.5 million children in Afghanistan are forecast to experience critical levels of hunger in 2024, the non-governmental organization Save the Children said.

Nearly 3 in 10 Afghan children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country feels the immediate impacts of flooding, the long-term effects of drought and the return of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, according to a published report. Tuesday night for Save The Children.

New figures from global hunger monitoring body Integrated Food Security Phase Classification predict that 28% of Afghanistan’s population, around 12.4 million people, will face acute food insecurity by October. Of those, nearly 2.4 million are expected to experience emergency levels of hunger, a level above famine, according to Save the Children.

The figures show a slight improvement from the last report, published in October 2023, but underline the continued need for assistance, as poverty affects 1 in 2 Afghans.

Torrential rains and flash floods hit northern Afghanistan in May, killing more than 400 people. Thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged and farmland was turned into mud.

Save the Children is operating a “clinic on wheels” in Baghlan province, which was hardest hit by the floods, as part of its emergency response programme. The organization added that it is estimated that 2.9 million children under five years of age will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2024.

Arshad Malik, Save the Children’s country director in Afghanistan, said the NGO has treated more than 7,000 children for severe or acute malnutrition so far this year.

“Those numbers are a sign of the enormous need to continue supporting families experiencing shock after shock,” Malik said. Children are feeling the devastating effects of three years of drought, high levels of unemployment and the return of more than 1.4 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran, he added.

“We need long-term community solutions to help families rebuild their lives,” Malik said.

More than 557,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan since September 2023, after Pakistan began cracking down on foreigners allegedly in the country illegally, including 1.7 million Afghans. He insists the campaign is not specifically directed against Afghans, but they make up the majority of foreigners in the South Asian country.

In April, Save the Children said a quarter of a million Afghan children need education, food and shelter after being forcibly returned from Pakistan.

Malik added that only 16% of the funding for the 2024 humanitarian response plan has been met so far, but almost half of the population needs assistance.

“This is not the time for the world to look the other way,” he said.