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Afghanistan faces rising malnutrition as aid cuts deepen crisis October 16, 2026 · 5:25 · Health explained · With Maya and Grace
Our health and medicine columnist, Grace, is here to talk about rising hunger and malnutrition in Afghanistan, and what aid agencies say is happening to people who need help.
Transcript Maya Welcome to Slow English FM. I’m Maya. This is Health Explained, where we look at health issues and the forces that shape them. Our health and medicine columnist, Grace, is here to talk about rising hunger and malnutrition in Afghanistan, and what aid agencies say is happening to people who need help. Maya Grace, the Associated Press, in a report published by ABC News, describes a children’s hospital ward in Kabul where every bed was full. What did the report find? Grace The report says all 20 beds in the malnutrition ward at Kabul’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health were full. It describes the hospital as Afghanistan’s main children’s hospital. That is a direct picture of pressure on one ward. The report also says hunger and malnutrition are rising across the country. Maya So that is one hospital, not a count of all the children who need care across Afghanistan. What do the wider estimates say? Grace The Associated Press report quotes John Aylieff, the World Food Programme’s country director for Afghanistan. He estimated that 19 million people would face acute hunger in the coming months. He described it as life-threatening hunger. The report also quotes his estimate that 5.3 million women and children would need treatment for acute malnutrition in the coming year. He said that was 1.3 million more than in 2022. Maya There is another figure from a separate assessment. The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization say a food security analysis projects 19.2 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity during the November-to-April winter period. Is that the same estimate? Grace It is a separate projection, with a more clearly stated period and measure. The agencies say the estimate comes from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, known as the IPC. It projects 19.2 million people, or 38 percent of Afghanistan’s population, facing high levels of acute food insecurity from November 2026 through April 2027. The agencies compare that with 17.4 million projected for the same period a year earlier. The Associated Press report gives Aylieff’s estimate of 19 million for the coming months. We should keep those figures tied to their own time periods and sources, rather than treat them as one identical measure. Maya What does the agencies’ report say is driving the need, even after a relatively strong harvest? Grace The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization say a strong agricultural season has not stopped food insecurity and child wasting from worsening. Their account points to families having less ability to buy food and to unemployment. They also say more than 1.2 million Afghans had been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan during 2026, adding pressure to communities already under strain. The agencies cite funding gaps and disruptions to trade routes as further pressures, including higher prices for basic goods. Maya That helps explain why having food in the country does not necessarily mean every family can afford it. How are aid cuts affecting treatment? Grace Aylieff told the Associated Press that the World Food Programme had only 12 percent of the funding it had in 2022. He also said the agency was turning away six out of seven acutely malnourished women and children from health clinics because it did not have enough food to provide them. Those figures are his account of the agency’s funding and its limits. They show the gap between the need he described and the help the programme said it could provide. Maya Grace, what is the main point for listeners trying to understand this crisis? Grace The reports describe several pressures happening together: hunger, families’ difficulty buying food, people returning to already strained communities, and less aid funding. The full ward in Kabul shows the strain in one hospital. The wider estimates point to needs well beyond that ward. And the aid figures suggest that, according to the World Food Programme’s country director, many people needing treatment may not receive it through the clinics he described. Maya Thank you, Grace. And thanks to you for listening to Health Explained on Slow English FM. We bring you news and stories in clear English to help you understand the world and build your English. I’m Maya. Goodbye.
