Some 19.2 million people in Afghanistan will face acute food insecurity this winter. In its latest humanitarian report, the UN children's agency UNICEF warns that about 5 million of them will be at emergency levels of hunger between November 2026 and April 2027, while funding shortages threaten treatment food for children and essential services.
Despite better rainfall and harvests, the report says, economic pressure and shrinking aid are eroding families' access to food. Child wasting, a dangerous form of malnutrition marked by low weight for height, has risen in 29 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces since early 2026, and malnutrition reached its highest recorded level for the August-October period. UNICEF estimates more than 4 million children aged six months to five years will need treatment for acute malnutrition in 2027.
The shortage of treatment food is the most pressing risk. The report records a gap of 210,000 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food, 17 percent of annual needs. UNICEF's $949.1 million appeal was only 48 percent funded as of September 30, and its nutrition programmes face a 70 percent shortfall.
Mass returns from neighbouring countries are adding to the strain. About 1.3 million Afghans came back from Pakistan and Iran between January 1 and October 3, roughly 715,000 from Pakistan and 581,000 from Iran. Thirty-five polio cases and outbreaks of diarrhoeal disease compound the crisis, as millions of families face another harsh winter.