Afghanistan: The Cost of Inaction (March 2025)

THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

Almost four years since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, more than half the population – 22.9 million people, including 5.7 million women, 12 million children, 0.5 million older people and 3 million people with disability, require humanitarian assistance. Recovery from 40 years of conflict and entrenched poverty is increasingly challenged by high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, protracted displacement, widespread explosive ordnance contamination, recurrent natural disasters, communicable disease outbreaks, the effects of climate change, political estrangement and heavily conditioned aid. Since August 2021, the de facto authorities (DfA) have imposed increasingly restrictive policies on women's and girls' rights and basic freedom, hindering their access to assistance and services, and limiting their involvement in public life.