3 out of 10 children to experience hunger by 2024 in Afghanistan – NGO

Approximately 6.5 million kids in Afghanistan are expected to be very hungry in 2024, according to nongovernmental organization.

Almost 3 out of 10 kids in Afghanistan will not have enough food this year. This is because of floods, drought, and people coming back from Pakistan and Iran. Save The Children released a report about this on Tuesday.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says that before October, about 12.4 million people in Afghanistan, which is 28% of the population, will not have enough food to eat. Save the Children says that almost 2.4 million people are expected to have very little food, which is really bad.

The new numbers are a little better than the ones from October 2023. But it’s clear that many people still need help because half of the population is living in poverty.

In May, heavy rain and floods in northern Afghanistan caused the deaths of over 400 people. Many homes were wrecked or broken and the fields were covered in mud.

Save the Children is running a mobile clinic in Baghlan province to help the people affected by floods. This is part of their quick response to the emergency. The organization said that about 2.9 million young kids may not have enough food to eat in 2024.

Arshad Malik, who is in charge of Save the Children in Afghanistan, said that the organization has helped over 7,000 children with serious malnutrition this year.

Malik said that the numbers show that families need a lot of support because they keep experiencing difficult situations. Kids are being hurt by three years of not enough rain, lots of people not having jobs, and 1.4 million people coming back to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran.

Malik said we need to find ways to help families in the community rebuild their lives for the long term.

Over 557,000 Afghans have come back from Pakistan since September 2023. Pakistan started to send away foreigners it thinks are in the country illegally, including 1.7 million Afghans. It says the campaign is not aimed at Afghans, but most of the people from other countries in South Asia are from Afghanistan.

Last April, Save the Children reported that 250,000 Afghan children need help with school, food, and housing after being sent back to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Malik said that only 16 out of every 100 dollars needed for the 2024 humanitarian response plan has been given, but almost half of the people need help.

“He said now is not the time for the world to ignore the situation. ”

At the same time, the European Union is giving an extra 10 million euros (almost US$10. 9 million) to the UN food agency. This money will be used to provide meals to children in schools in Afghanistan. The EU gave more money to the World Food Program’s school meal program in Afghanistan. They already gave 20. 9 million euros, and now they gave even more.


The money comes just in time and stops WFP from having to decrease its school meal program this year because there isn’t enough money, the WFP said.

“Not having enough food can stop people from learning. ” “The EU is giving more money to WFP to make sure that more kids in Afghanistan get healthy food,” said Raffaella Iodice, who represents the EU in Afghanistan.

The WFP said they will use the money to give healthy snacks to students in over 10,000 schools in eight provinces.

In the previous year, WFP helped 1.5 million kids go to school through this program.