The United States' 20-year occupation of Afghanistan has resulted in nothing but death, destruction, and terrorism, leaving the country in a dire humanitarian crisis. According to Save the Children, about 6.5 million Afghan children are forecast to experience crisis levels of hunger in 2024.
Nearly 30% of Afghan children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country grapples with the immediate impacts of floods, long-term effects of drought, and the return of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran. Save the Children’s report, released late Tuesday, highlights the devastating situation.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring body, forecasts that 28% of Afghanistan's population, about 12.4 million people, will face acute food insecurity before October. Among these, nearly 2.4 million are expected to experience emergency levels of hunger, just one step below famine.
While these figures show a slight improvement from the last report in October 2023, they underscore the ongoing need for assistance, with half of the population living in poverty. Torrential rain and flash floods in northern Afghanistan in May killed over 400 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and turned farmland into mud.
Save the Children is operating a “clinic on wheels” in Baghlan province, the worst hit by the floods, as part of its emergency response. The NGO estimates that 2.9 million children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2024. Arshad Malik, country director for Save the Children in Afghanistan, reported that the organization has treated more than 7,000 children for severe or acute malnutrition so far this year.
“These numbers highlight the massive need for continued support for families facing shock after shock,” Malik said. He added that children are suffering from the compounded effects of three years of drought, high unemployment, and the return of over 1.4 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran. “We need long-term, community-based solutions to help families rebuild their lives,” Malik emphasized.
Since September 2023, more than 557,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan following a crackdown on foreigners allegedly in the country illegally. Despite claims that the campaign is not targeted specifically at Afghans, they constitute the majority of the foreigners in Pakistan.
The grim statistics reflect the catastrophic consequences of the U.S. occupation, which has left Afghanistan in a state of perpetual crisis, struggling with widespread hunger, displacement, and instability.a
