UN brief: Afghanistan faces deepening humanitarian crisis as funding and women’s access shrink

Tom Fletcher told the Council that Afghanistan is in a severe humanitarian crisis driven by overlapping shocks, restrictive policies affecting women and girls, decades of conflict and recent, large funding cuts. "Nearly 22,000,000 people will need our help in 2026," Fletcher said, and he urged continued support for the humanitarian exception in resolution 26 15 to keep essential operations running.

Fletcher said the UN is seeking $1.7 billion for Afghanistan to reach 17.5 million people but has hyper-prioritized interventions to target roughly 3.9 million people at greatest risk given current funding shortfalls. He warned that hunger has increased for the first time in four years and that roughly 17.4 million people are now food insecure in the country.

Reporting from recent field visits to Kabul, Kandahar and Kunduz, Fletcher described the scale of population movement: "Over 2,600,000 Afghans returned in 2025," he said, with more than 4,000,000 returning over the past two years. He said women and children made up about 60% of returns this year and noted that about 2,500,000 Afghans remain in Pakistan, many of whom have recently seen their…