Malnutrition, driven by the lack of access to adequate food, compromises immune systems and makes children far more vulnerable to common infections.
The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, said on Tuesday that children under two currently account for 83 per cent of severe acute malnutrition cases.
Hospitals overwhelmed
Hospitals are overwhelmed by increasing demand, UNICEF has warned.
In parts of southern Afghanistan, hospitals are seeing three to four severely malnourished children for every available bed.
Severe acute malnutrition cases which were admitted with medical complications have risen by one-third from the same time last year – from 6,000 in July 2025 to 8,000 by July 2026.
Overlapping crises
The spike in malnutrition cases is caused by a mix of environmental and political factors.
Afghanistan has endured successive years of drought, followed by destructive heavy rainfall and flash floods. This year’s record-strength El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify the extreme weather.
At the same time, regional instability is disrupting cross-border trade and the return to the country of over six million people since 2023 is putting pressure on the overstretched job market and public services, including housing and health services.
UNICEF said that these pressures mean families are unable to feed their children properly; meals have become smaller, scarcer, and less nutritiously varied.
A child’s first food at six months old may consist of little more than bread with tea or watered-down yoghurt, the agency said in a recent report.
Providing care
Treatment for malnutrition does exist.
Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan tells the story of Sagida, a 9-month-old girl he met in a hospital in eastern Afghanistan.
She came from a remote village in a neighbouring province that had recently suffered from severe floods. A UNICEF-trained 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,” Mr. Oyewale explained.
Cost-effective funding
Due to funding cuts to humanitarian aid, more than 100 sites treating children with severe wasting have closed this year compared with 2025, putting additional strain on the centres that have stayed open, UNICEF said.
The agency’s nutrition programme has received only 22 per cent of the $180 million funding it requires this year.
“We should not wait until a child is dangerously thin and lying in a hospital bed before we intervene. […] 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,” said Mr. Oyewale.
