US Aid Cuts in Afghanistan Linked to Preventable Deaths, Report Finds

Five years after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, a new report by Refugees International warns that the country’s humanitarian crisis has entered a more perilous phase exacerbated by sweeping reductions in American aid. The report, released amid growing global indifference to Afghanistan’s plight, asserts that the abrupt termination of U.S. humanitarian assistance in 2025 has had devastating, life-or-death consequences for millions of civilians.

According to the findings, the funding freeze has directly contributed to the closure of scores of health facilities across the country, the displacement of thousands of trained healthcare workers, and the severe weakening of critical lifesaving services, including emergency obstetric care, neonatal intensive care, and malnutrition treatment programs. In a country already battered by decades of conflict, economic collapse, and recurrent natural disasters, these cuts have effectively dismantled large portions of the fragile public health infrastructure that international donors had spent years building.

Drawing on 555 household surveys, in-depth interviews with frontline health workers, and clinical data collected from hospitals and clinics in both urban and rural provinces, the report documents a sharp rise in preventable deaths particularly among women and children. It cites numerous cases where patients died en route to shuttered clinics, or where mothers gave birth without skilled attendants, leading to fatal hemorrhages and infections. Maternal and newborn mortality rates, which had been gradually declining over the past decade, are now showing alarming reversals in several regions.

Refugees International emphasizes that these findings offer some of the strongest empirical evidence to date that reductions in U.S. humanitarian funding are not just bureaucratic or political shifts they are translating directly into lost lives. “This is not an abstract policy debate,” the report states. “These are mothers, infants, and vulnerable families dying because essential services no longer exist.”

The organization has urgently called on the U.S. government, along with other international donors and multilateral agencies, to reverse course and restore critical health funding. It also urges the international community to pressure all parties in Afghanistan—including de facto authorities to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian workers and to prioritize the protection of civilians. Without swift action, the report warns, Afghanistan will continue to face severe humanitarian and healthcare challenges, with the most vulnerable populations especially women, children, and displaced communities bearing the heaviest toll.

“We cannot look away,” said a Refugees International spokesperson. “The world made promises to the Afghan people. Now, those promises are being broken and the cost is being paid in human lives.”

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