Emergency Warns of Deepening Health Crisis in Afghanistan

Four years after the government’s collapse and the withdrawal of foreign troops, millions in Afghanistan remain without essential healthcare, as economic breakdown, restrictions on women, and resource shortages push the system to the brink.

The international medical aid organization Emergency has issued a grave warning about Afghanistan’s worsening health situation, marking the fourth anniversary of the political collapse. The group reports that millions are still denied basic medical services.

Drawing on interviews with more than 1,600 patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers in 11 provinces, Emergency found that over 70% of the population lacks access to free or affordable healthcare. The combination of economic collapse, severe restrictions on women’s work and travel, and dwindling medical resources has placed unprecedented strain on the health system.

According to Dejan Panic, Emergency’s country director in Afghanistan, 22.9 million people—more than half the population—now require humanitarian assistance. He described the crisis as “a post-war survival test,” driven by damaged infrastructure, sweeping human rights restrictions, and limited medical access.

The report highlights particularly severe consequences in Panjshir’s Anabah district, where restrictions on women’s mobility have delayed medical treatment for female patients, in some cases leading to preventable deaths. Emergency stressed that training medical personnel—especially women—remains central to its mission, with women currently making up 23% of its workforce.

Operating in Afghanistan since 1999, the organization runs three surgical centers in Kabul, Lashkar Gah, and Anabah; a maternity hospital in Panjshir; and more than 40 first-aid and primary healthcare posts nationwide.

Emergency warns that without urgent international aid, healthcare access will continue to erode, deepening the humanitarian disaster. The group calls on the global community to safeguard medical care as a protected and fundamental right—regardless of ongoing political and economic turmoil.

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