Closure of Clinics Leaves 3.7 Million Afghan Children Acutely Malnourished
Theo Al Jazeera English
A Save the Children report finds that one in ten Afghan children under five is acutely malnourished, with 3.7 million affected in 2026. The crisis is driven by a near 70% drop in humanitarian funding, forcing about 600 health facilities to close and leaving millions without access to essential care.
New research from Save the Children shows that one in ten infants and young children in Afghanistan is suffering from acute malnutrition—a sudden and severe decline in weight or nutritional health over a short period.
According to the UK-based charity, the number of children at risk of malnutrition in Afghanistan is rising as essential health services shut down due to a lack of healthcare funding.
What does the research data show?
Save the Children said UN data indicates that malnutrition among young children in Afghanistan is increasing. Nearly one in ten children under five is currently malnourished, and the rate is rising rather than stabilizing.
The agency also noted that acute malnutrition levels have worsened in two-thirds of provinces in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year. Over the past four years, the acute malnutrition rate among under-fives has risen by 14%, affecting 3.7 million children in 2026.
What is acute malnutrition?
Acute malnutrition, also known as wasting, is a life-threatening condition where a child is severely underweight for their height. It is caused by reduced food intake or severe illness, leading to rapid loss of body fat and muscle.
Why is child malnutrition in Afghanistan increasing?
According to Save the Children, the rise in malnutrition is largely due to a slowdown in humanitarian aid flowing into the country, forcing about 600 essential health facilities to close. Around 4 million people, half of them children, previously depended on these services.
Over the past four years, humanitarian aid for Afghanistan has dropped by nearly 70%, from $3.27 billion in 2022 to $1 billion in 2025. This follows the Taliban's takeover in August 2021, after the US and its allies withdrew troops from the country. Foreign aid has been constrained since then.
As of mid-2026, only $438 million in humanitarian aid has been raised, according to Save the Children, meaning a 74% funding shortfall.
Save the Children said it has kept 14 health clinics running and is the only organization providing healthcare to 10,000 people in Afghanistan's northern mountain region.
Another complicating factor is that Afghanistan's population has grown by 12% since September 2023, largely due to more than 6 million Afghans being returned from Pakistan and Iran, as those countries tightened conditions for Afghan refugees and ramped up deportations.
“The world cannot look away. Severe hunger, staggering numbers of returnees, and mass internal displacement caused by recent disasters, conflict, and four years of drought are pushing already limited humanitarian resources to the brink,” said Ashish Damle, Country Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan. “The international community now faces a choice: continue responding only after families reach a breaking point, or act early to protect the lives, rights, and futures of children.”
Why has humanitarian aid to Afghanistan declined?
Humanitarian aid to Afghanistan has fallen sharply over the past five years, mainly due to international donors withdrawing after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. That event, which followed the US troop withdrawal and the collapse of President Ashraf Ghani's government, led many donors to restrict or redirect funding, tighten sanctions, and impose stricter conditions on aid operations.
A specific issue is the Taliban's ban on female aid workers, which has severely limited organizations' ability to deliver aid and services to women and children. Funding shortages have also forced many organizations to close or suspend programs.
Before 2021, the US was Afghanistan's largest donor, funding major development and reconstruction projects as well as humanitarian aid. However, since the Taliban took power, most US aid to Afghanistan now flows through indirect channels such as the UN or NGOs and is a fraction of pre-2021 levels. Additionally, the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid since Donald Trump began his second term in the White House.
The US has also expanded sanctions on key Taliban members and frozen Afghan state assets in the US since its withdrawal in 2021. After the Taliban's rise, the European Union and the World Bank also suspended large-scale reconstruction funding and gradually restarted much smaller emergency aid programs, mainly through NGOs.
