EMERGENCY: Conflict & Hunger in Afghanistan
A great tide of hunger is looming over Afghanistan following the rapid acceleration of conflict compounded by drought and COVID-19. Vulnerable Afghan families need your help.
Across Afghanistan, families have been forced from their homes due to conflict and now fear for their future. The current chaos will only worsen food insecurity in a country where one in three Afghans is already hungry.
Afghans are food insecure
of the country lives in poverty
children are severely hungry
WFP is committed to staying the course in Afghanistan as long as it is possible to deliver assistance to the Afghan people while ensuring the safety of our staff.
WFP has been in Afghanistan for more than 60 years and despite security and logistics challenges, is on the ground working with partners to get food to those most in need.
How We Help Afghans Survive Hunger
WFP has been working in Afghanistan since 1963 – with a special focus on women and girls – helping vulnerable families, schoolchildren, returning refugees, internally displaced people and disabled people. With your help, we provide:
Crisis Response
Amidst violence and natural disasters, WFP provides unconditional food assistance to vulnerable groups including those displaced by conflict, affected by extreme weather, refugees and returnees.
Disaster Reduction
WFP works with communities to strengthen their preparedness for and recovery from disasters. Projects include constructing or rehabilitating roads and canals, reforestation and vocational training.
Nutrition Support
WFP provides nutrition support to children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. With UNICEF and WHO, WFP provides treatment and prevention programs for the lifelong effects of malnutrition.
Food Access
WFP works with partners to provide Afghan people with access to nutritious food at affordable prices by supporting small-scale farmers and supply chains, and strengthening food safety measures.
A Dangerous Uphill Battle
Conflict
For decades, Afghans have lived through foreign intervention, civil war, insurgency and widespread insecurity. This has destroyed the country’s economic growth, limiting opportunities and making poverty worse. The recent escalation of conflict has thrown the lives of Afghan families into turmoil and uncertainty.
Photo: WFP/Arete/Andrew Quilty
Hunger
One third of Afghans are food insecure, and that insecurity is rising sharply. Undernutrition is a big concern for women, children, displaced people, returnees, households headed by women, people with disabilities and the poor.
Photo: WFP/Arete/Andrew Quilty
Coronavirus
Millions face acute food insecurity in the face of COVID-19. The pandemic is particularly hard on the more than one in four Afghans who rely on day labour and low-income jobs to live. Lockdowns and other measures to stop the spread of the virus threaten to push vulnerable communities deeper into despair.
Photo: WFP/Massoud Hossaini
Drought
A massive drought in 2018 – the worst in a decade – wreaked havoc on most of the country. It displaced thousands, kept farmers from growing crops and forced people to sell precious animals.
Photo: WFP/Arete/Andrew Quilty
The Larger Climate
Every year, a quarter million Afghans are affected by floods, droughts, avalanches, landslides and earthquakes. Weather events become more and more unpredictable - and severe - each year.
Photo: WFP/Arete/Andrew Quilty
A Young Population
More than two-thirds of Afghans are under the age of 25. Conflict, corruption and illegal industry put their futures at risk – especially in rural areas.
Photo: WFP/Andrew Quilty
