Afghanistan Crisis

Afghanistan Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

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 2022, the country had an estimated population of around 38.3 million people.

The humanitarian situation

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.  Already suffering the worst drought in decades, Afghanistan in June 2022 has 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 2022 - more than 6.5 million people were displaced within the country, while 2.1 million Afghan refugees have fled the South Asian country.

The Regional Refugee Response Plan for the Afghanistan Situation 2023 seeks 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. 

More than 15 million people in Afghanistan face acute hunger between May and October 2023, including nearly 3 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 the year to 9 million between March and April, 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, 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. As the country enters the third consecutive year 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.

28.8 million people - two-thirds of the country’s population - require humanitarian assistance in 2023. Among those in need are 15.8 million boys and girls.

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 August 2023, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2023 is only 25 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% coverage). 

Afghanistan LocationThe 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.

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. 

As 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.

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.

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

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