According to an August 2026 briefing by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 3.7 million children across Afghanistan are currently suffering from wasting, meaning they are dangerously thin for their height because of acute malnutrition. UNICEF said around 1 million of them have life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. Another 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are projected to be malnourished, raising health risks for both mothers and children.

Hospitals are already under pressure. According to UNICEF, more than half a million children had been admitted since the beginning of 2026 for serious forms of acute malnutrition. Admissions of malnourished children with severe medical complications rose from 6,000 in July 2025 to 8,000 in July 2026. In parts of southern Afghanistan, some hospitals were treating three or four severely malnourished children for each available bed.

The crisis begins before children reach hospitals. UNICEF said half of Afghanistan’s children live in severe child food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups (*1) a day. Some infants are fed mostly bread with tea or watered-down yoghurt. Children with such limited food variety face up to six times higher risk of wasting.

This reflects Afghanistan’s wider food crisis. The World Food Programme’s (WFP) 2025 Annual Country Report said Afghanistan entered 2026 with 17.4 million people facing crisis or emergency levels of hunger. Funding shortages have reduced nutrition services’ capacity to meet this need. According to UNICEF, more than 100 treatment sites had closed in 2026. The nutrition sector (*2) in Afghanistan faces a 57% funding gap, limiting support for malnourished children and mothers.

The crisis also has an economic background. Before the Taliban took power in 2021, international grants had covered around 75% of Afghanistan’s public expenditure. After the takeover, most development aid was frozen, reducing public spending and formal employment. Restrictions on women’s education and employment further reduced household income. UNICEF said 6 million people, more than half of them children, have returned to Afghanistan since 2023, mostly from Pakistan and Iran. This added pressure to housing, labour markets and basic services, leaving more families exposed to poverty and humanitarian need.

Afghanistan’s crisis is part of a wider global food problem. The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2026) report projected that 503 million to 520 million people around the world could still face hunger in 2030. In Afghanistan, these pressures now converge in child malnutrition and reduced nutrition care.

(*1) The 8 Recognized Food Groups: Includes (1) breast milk, (2) grains, roots, tubers, and plantains, (3) pulses, nuts, and seeds, (4) dairy products, (5) flesh foods like meat or fish, (6) eggs, (7) vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, and (8) all other fruits and vegetables. To prevent malnutrition, a child should consume items from at least 5 of these 8 distinct groups daily.

(*2) A UN-led group coordinating nutrition aid for malnourished children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.

An Afghan child is weighed at a children’s supplemental feeding centre at Farah City Hospital, Afghanistan (2012). (Photo: Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup / Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain])

Learn more about Afghanistan’s current humanitarian crisis: Afghanistan: Deepening humanitarian crisis

Learn more about recent reporting on global hunger: Africa records largest number of hungry people as global hunger declines