The country
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in Southern Asia, bordering Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan. Its national capital is Kabul. Afghanistan covers a land area of 652,230 square kilometers. As of 2024, the country has an estimated population of around 44.5 million people.
The humanitarian situation
More than two years after the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan remains in the grips of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Millions in Afghanistan are experiencing misery and hunger amid decades of conflict. The cumulative effects of violent conflict, internal displacement, drought and other natural disasters have drastically increased humanitarian needs throughout Afghanistan. The country is prone to natural disasters, including floods and earthquakes.
The collapse of the country’s economy is further exacerbating humanitarian needs. Millions of Afghans – particularly children and women – need urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance. Ongoing insecurity and frequent natural disasters continue to displace populations and generate additional humanitarian needs throughout the country. In October 2023, a series of powerful earthquakes shook western parts of the country killing nearly 1,500 people. In June 2022, Afghanistan had been struck by a devastating earthquake, that killed at least 1,000 people and left many more injured.
In 2021 alone, more than 700,000 people were forced to flee their homes. Since 2021, about 1.6 million people have found refuge in neighboring countries. The United Nations (UN) estimates that – as of December 2023 - more than 3.25 million people were displaced by conflict within the country, while 5.3 million Afghan refugees have fled the South Asian country.
The Regional Refugee Response Plan for the Afghanistan Situation 2023 sought 613 million US Dollar to support 5.2 million Afghans as well as 2.7 million of their local hosts across the region. The five neighboring countries Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan host some 8.2 million Afghans, including 2.1 million registered refugees and asylum-seekers. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), many Afghans have been in the region for decades, mostly in the Islamic Republics of Iran and Pakistan.
At the beginning of October 2023, the Pakistani government announced plans to repatriate "illegal foreigners". Since then, nearly 550,000 Afghan nationals from neighboring Pakistan have returned to their home country as they were threatened with deportation. According to media reports, nearly 350,000 Afghans have also been forcibly expelled from Iran since October.
The returnees to Afghanistan are contributing to the deepening humanitarian crisis. Large numbers of Afghan returnees are in need of protection, including many women and children. Most of the Afghan returnees crossed the border from Pakistan in November. The Pakistani government has ignored global calls to halt the deportation of Afghan refugees.
More than 15.8 million people in Afghanistan faced acute hunger between November 2023 and March 2024, including nearly 3.6 million people in emergency levels of food insecurity. 4 million people are acutely malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), malnutrition in Afghanistan in 2022 reached the highest levels since records have been kept, and the country continues to face the highest prevalence of insufficient food consumption globally.
Nonetheless, the UN agency has announced that it has been forced to drastically reduce critical lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan to millions of vulnerable people due to severe funding constraints. In May 2023, WFP cut 4 million people from its emergency food assistance for the second month in a row.
Aid operations in the country currently face a critical funding gap as humanitarian needs remain severe. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), severe underfunding has already led to a massive reduction in the number of people targeted for food assistance each month – down from 13 million at the beginning of 2023 to 9 million between March and April last year, and 5 million people in May.
Funding shortfalls also threaten essential healthcare services because aid agencies donate medicine and other critical resources to hospitals across the country. More than 260 clinics went out of service in June 2023, depriving 2 million people of healthcare. OCHA warns if additional funds are not received, further cuts in food rations are inevitable over the coming months, including an additional reduction in the number of people targeted for food assistance down to 3 million people from September.
Afghanistan must also contend with a worsening climate crisis. After years of drought, more and more households are feeling the impact, and 30 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan report extremely low water quality.
The restrictions of the de facto authorities - the Taliban - including the December 2022 and April 2023 directives barring Afghan women from working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies - continue to obstruct aid operations throughout the country and limit women and girls' access to humanitarian assistance.
In 2024, the United Nations estimates that 23.7 million people - including 12.4 million children - will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. 29.2 million people - two-thirds of the country’s population - required humanitarian assistance in 2023. Among those in need were 15.8 million boys and girls.
Although the number of people in need has dropped this year, humanitarian sources say the reduction does not reflect a significant improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan compared to 2023. Due to a lack of funding and pressure from donor countries, aid agencies will implement a more rigorously targeted response in 2024, focusing on the most vulnerable in the areas with the most urgent needs, leaving millions of others with severe needs unmet.
The Afghanistan 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) seeks US$3.06 billion to reach 17.3 million of the most vulnerable people this year. As of April, the HRP is only 7 percent funded (US$220 million). Such a large gap between existing needs and available funding will severely hamper the delivery of life-saving assistance. In 2023, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) stopped food assistance to 10 million Afghans due to a massive funding shortfall.
In 2023, the United Nations and humanitarian partner organizations launched a revised appeal of 3.23 billion US Dollar to alleviate the plight of millions of people affected by the humanitarian crisis in the country. As of February 2024, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2023 was only 46 percent funded. In 2002, the UN had appealed for 4.44 billion US Dollar in funding for the Afghanistan crisis. As of December 2022, only 2.61 billion had been received from donors (59 percent coverage).
The security situation
In February 2020, the United States (US) and the Taliban signed the “US-Taliban Agreement,” which contained commitments by the US related to the withdrawal from Afghanistan of military forces of the US and its allies, as well as commitments by the Taliban related to security. Following a US drawdown of virtually all of its troops, a summer 2021 Taliban offensive quickly overran the country.
The Taliban, which refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, seized Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul on August 15, 2021, following the successive capture of several provincial capitals and territory in early August. Following the collapse of the Government of Afghanistan, economic and political instability has resulted in the deterioration of basic service provision across the country, increased prices of staple foods and fuel, reduced household purchasing power that constrain the ability of Afghan households to meet basic needs.
Despite the Taliban’s taking control of much of Afghanistan, other armed groups challenge their authority. UN agencies and non-governmental organizations continue to be on the ground. However, the Taliban takeover has complicated the conditions for the provision of humanitarian assistance, and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has grown even more complex and severe.
While armed conflict has declined significantly since 2021, instability and armed attacks, including the use of improvised explosive devices, continue to pose a significant risk to civilians, and chronic poverty and high unemployment, particularly among women, are expected to continue to drive humanitarian needs in 2024. The situation is compounded by internal displacement and continued cross-border returns from Iran and Pakistan, straining already limited resources.
The actions of the de facto authorities targeting women and girls in the country - the exclusion from public and political life, economic activity and education, aggravate both the economic crisis throughout the country and in particular the security and humanitarian situation of the female population.
In one of the latest in a series of systematic restrictions and violations of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, the Taliban issued an order in early April 2023 banning women from working for the United Nations in the country. The world organization has condemned in the strongest terms the Taliban's decision, calling the ban unlawful and unacceptable, and has warned that the move could push it to cease operations in the country.
The de facto authorities had already issued an order on December 24, 2022, prohibiting all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations from going to work. NGOs on the ground state that without their female staff, they cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in need.
Despite facing sanctions and failing to earn formal recognition from any country as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, the Taliban have refused to give in to widespread domestic and international calls for respect for women’s rights and the formation of an inclusive government.
Critics blame the Taliban's restrictions for contributing to the humanitarian crisis and discouraging foreign donors. The Taliban have rejected claims that their misogynistic policies are jeopardizing the flow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, saying donors are politicizing aid.
Donations
Your donation for the Afghanistan emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.
- UN Crisis Relief: Afghanistan crisis
https://crisisrelief.un.org/afghanistan-crisis - World Food Programme: Afghanistan emergency
https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/afghanistan-emergency - UNHCR: Afghanistan emergency
https://www.unhcr.org/afghanistan-emergency.html - International Rescue Committee (IRC): Afghanistan crisis
https://www.rescue.org/country/afghanistan - Islamic Relief Worldwide: Afghanistan emergency
https://islamic-relief.org/appeals/afghanistan-emergency/ - UNICEF Appeal: Afghanistan
https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/delivering-support-afghanistans-children - International Committee of the Red Cross: Afghanistan in crisis
https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/afghanistan - World Vision: Afghanistan appeal
https://www.wvi.org/emergencies/afghanistan - Disasters Emergency Committee UK: Afghanistan Crisis Appeal
https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/afghanistan-crisis-appeal
To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.
Further information
- UN Humanitarian (OCHA): Six things you need to know about Afghanistan right now, December 20, 2022
https://unocha.exposure.co/six-things-you-need-to-know-about-afghanistan-right-now - International Crisis Group: Afghanistan
https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan - UN OCHA: Afghanistan
https://www.unocha.org/afghanistan - ACAPS: Afghanistan Complex crisis
https://www.acaps.org/country/afghanistan/crisis/complex-crisis - European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations: Afghanistan
https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/where/asia-and-pacific/afghanistan_en - Human Rights Watch: World Report 2024: Afghanistan
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/afghanistan - Amnesty International: World Report 2022/2023: Human rights in Afghanistan
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/afghanistan/report-afghanistan/
Last updated: 12/04/2024