UNICEF Warns: One Million Afghan Children at Imminent Risk of Death from Severe Malnutrition

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued a stark warning that approximately one million children in Afghanistan are battling life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and without urgent intervention, many will not survive.

Speaking from Kabul during a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, painted a dire picture of the country’s escalating nutrition crisis. He revealed that out of roughly 3.7 million children currently suffering from wasting a debilitating condition caused by acute malnutrition nearly one million are in the most critical category.

“If there is no treatment and we are not able to act fast, that one million number are at risk of dying,” Oyewale warned, urging the international community to mobilize resources immediately.

The crisis is not only widespread but also deeply acute. So far this year, more than 500,000 children have required hospital care for moderate to severe wasting a figure that underscores the strain on an already fragile healthcare system. Among the most vulnerable are infants: nearly 40 percent of hospitalized children with severe wasting and medical complications are under six months old. Alarmingly, children younger than two years account for over 80 percent of all severe acute malnutrition cases, highlighting how the earliest years of life have become the deadliest.

Oyewale emphasized that malnutrition has become a primary driver of rising child mortality in Afghanistan, compounding the effects of decades of conflict, economic collapse, and recurring natural disasters. The situation is deteriorating rapidly: in July of last year, hospitals recorded around 6,000 severe malnutrition cases. By July of this year, that number had surged by roughly one-third, exceeding 8,000 cases in a single month.

The overwhelming demand is pushing health facilities to the breaking point. “In parts of southern Afghanistan, some hospitals are now seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed,” Oyewale said, describing overcrowded wards and exhausted medical staff struggling to cope.

Compounding the tragedy are widespread food insecurity, limited access to clean water, and the collapse of basic health services since the Taliban takeover in 2021. International aid cuts and funding shortfalls have further crippled humanitarian operations, leaving many families without any safety net.

UNICEF is appealing for immediate funding and logistical support to scale up therapeutic feeding programs, provide ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), and train health workers in community-based malnutrition management. The agency warns that without a swift and sustained response, Afghanistan faces not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also a generational loss of its youngest citizens.

“These are not just numbers,” Oyewale stressed. “Each child has a name, a family, and a future. We have the tools to save them but we are running out of time.”

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