At a press briefing in Geneva on 25 August 2026, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale said 3.7 million children across the country were suffering from wasting, including around 1 million with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. He said children under two accounted for 83 per cent of severe acute malnutrition cases, and that nearly 40 per cent of children admitted to hospital with severe wasting and medical complications were babies under six months old.

Oyewale said more than half a million children had been admitted for high-risk moderate or severe wasting since the start of the year. Severe acute malnutrition cases admitted with medical complications rose by one third over the same period last year, from 6,000 in July 2025 to 8,000 by July 2026, he said. In parts of southern Afghanistan, he added, some hospitals were seeing three or four severely malnourished children for every available bed. He described a 9-month-old girl from Nuristan province, weighing 4 kg on admission, who had stabilised after receiving therapeutic milk.

Citing a UNICEF report on diets across all 34 provinces, he said half of Afghanistan's children lived in severe child food poverty, eating foods from two or fewer food groups a day. He attributed additional pressure to drought, floods, regional instability and the return of six million people since 2023. More than 100 sites treating severe wasting had closed this year compared with 2025, he said, and the Nutrition Sector response faced a 57 per cent funding gap. UNICEF's own nutrition programme required around $180 million this year and was 22 per cent funded.