Attachments
Highlights
- Needs remain alarmingly high, with over 50 per cent of the population—23.7 million people, including 12.3 million children— requiring humanitarian assistance in 20241.
- In October, over 832,000 children were screened for wasting, of whom 44,800 (58.5 per cent girls) were admitted for outpatient treatment; 3,345 children with severe wasting and medical complications were referred for inpatient care.
- In October, 554,059 children and caregivers (42 per cent women and girls), including 3,118 children with disabilities, accessed prevention, risk mitigation and response child protection services.
- Since the beginning of the year, UNICEF has reached 3.47 million children across the country with textbooks and teaching and learning materials.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Humanitarian needs in Afghanistan remain alarmingly high, with over 50 per cent of the population, some 23.7 million people, including 12.3 million children requiring humanitarian assistance in 2024, the third highest number of people in need in the world1. Half the population lives in poverty and nearly 3 million children are experiencing acute levels of food insecurity. Since 15 September 2023, more than 750,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan2 almost 80 per cent are women and children, and many need humanitarian assistance. Moreover, the acute effects of climate change are deepening the humanitarian crisis, as extreme weather events are more frequent and intense. Afghanistan remains unprepared to deal with increasingly persistent natural hazards and will require significant resources for early warning and early response systems to mitigate the impacts of these emergencies.
Food security continues to improve marginally, with the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicating that 11.6 million people (25 per cent of the population) are currently in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or Phase 4 (Emergency), down from 15.3 million in 2023. While the scale and duration of assistance have prevented acutely food- insecure populations from falling into worse levels, food insecurity remains concerning, with 14.8 million people (32 per cent of the population) projected to be food insecure (IPC Phase 3/Crisis or above) during the winter months, and are in urgent need of humanitarian food assistance from November 2024 to March 2025. Key drivers include high unemployment, household debts, low incomes, the influx of returnees from neighbouring countries, and fluctuating food prices. Afghanistan’s economic fragility and the expected La Niña conditions in 2025 will negatively impact agricultural and livestock conditions, maintaining the need for food assistance.3 However, the results of the IPC Acute Malnutrition analysis, conducted in October, indicated widespread acute malnutrition across Afghanistan. With four provinces (Helmand, Kandahar, Nuristan and Paktika) classified in IPC Phase 4 (Critical), 24 provinces4 classified as IPC Phase 3 (Serious) and six provinces5 classified as IPC Phase 2 (Alert).
Restrictive policies affecting women and girls profoundly impact Afghan society and its future. Continued bans on secondary and post-secondary education for girls, mahram requirements, and prohibitions on women working in many sectors limit their participation in communities and access to services, undermining fundamental human rights. Afghanistan is also vulnerable to epidemic-prone diseases. Since the beginning of 2024, a total of 155,383 acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) with dehydration cases and 77 associated deaths (CFR=0.05%) were reported from 348 districts. Out of the total cases, 86,025 (55.4%) were under-five children, and 76,957 (49.5 %) were females6. Since the beginning of 2024, a total of 54,088 suspected measles cases and 243 deaths (CFR=0.4%) were reported. Among suspected measles cases, 43,468 (80.4%) were under-five children, and 24,653 (45.6%) were females. The epidemiological curve of suspected measles cases shows a decreasing trend since week 26, however, the trend in 2024 is higher than that reported in 2023 and the 2-year average before the 2021-2022 outbreak period. Balkh province has reported the highest cumulative incidence of suspected measles cases per 10,000 population (32.9), followed by Khost (29.1), Urozgan (23.8), and Jawzjan (23.8).