The U.N.’s top humanitarian official warned Wednesday that Afghanistan is sinking deeper into crisis as a surge in returning refugees, mounting hunger and dwindling aid resources push millions into increasingly “precarious” conditions.
Briefing the U.N. Security Council, Tom Fletcher said Afghanistan is on track to remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies next year.
“Nearly 22 million people will still need humanitarian assistance in 2026 – surpassed only by Sudan and Yemen,” he said as he unveiled the U.N.’s $1.7 billion appeal aimed at reaching 17.5 million people.
With funding stretched thin, Fletcher said the U.N. has been forced to sharply scale back its targets. “We have further hyper-prioritized our plan to reach 3.9 million people in the most urgent need, and for that we require $375.9 million,” he said.
“For the first time in four years, the number of people facing hunger has gone up, now reaching 17.4 million,” Fletcher said, adding that essential services – already insufficient and uneven across the country – are “stretched to breaking point” as Afghan refugees return in record numbers.
Highlighting the scale of returns, he said: “Over 2.6 million Afghans returned in 2025, bringing the number of Afghans who have returned in the last two years to more than 4 million.”
He stressed that the situation for these returnees is “particularly precarious,” noting that women and children made up 60% of all returns this year, “coming back to a country where women and girls are denied opportunities to study, work or, in some cases, receive health care.”
“With 2.5 million Afghans still in Pakistan, a large majority of whom have recently seen their legal status revoked, the potential impact of further mass returns is alarming,” he said.
Despite limited funding, Fletcher said the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund has released more than $40 million to support the surge in returns, the earthquake response and anticipatory action to blunt the worst effects of drought.
Emphasizing the consequences of underfunding, he warned that “as we reach the end of the year, underfunding has forced service closures, resulted in scaled-back assistance to millions and ultimately cost lives.”
“This winter is the first in years with almost no international food distribution,” Fletcher said, noting that only about 1 million people received food during the lean season, down from 5.6 million in 2024. With “3.7 million children in need of nutrition assistance, including 1.7 million at risk of death if not treated,” he warned that the results “will be catastrophic.”
Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan, echoed the alarm, saying: “The deteriorating human rights situation is not the only crisis affecting the Afghan people.”
She said more than 23 million Afghans – over half the population – will continue to require humanitarian assistance in 2026.
Gagnon pointed to drought, land degradation, economic strain and population pressures as factors deepening the crisis.
She also warned of escalating tensions with Pakistan, with “deadly cross-border exchanges of fire and airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties,” while welcoming Islamabad’s recent decision to allow humanitarian supplies to cross the border.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, she said “an opportunity exists to build on the current relative stability” toward an Afghanistan “at peace, reintegrated into the global community and where the human rights of all Afghans are realized.”
