The United Nations has warned that 19.2 million people in Afghanistan will face severe food insecurity during the coming winter, with roughly 5 million of them at risk of reaching emergency levels of hunger. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the food crisis is expected to worsen during the harsh winter months from November to April. OCHA spokesperson for Afghanistan Olga Cherevko said the situation is severe. The warning, reported by Ratopati, points to an increasing risk of famine as winter approaches, with children and economically vulnerable families expected to be hit hardest.
Millions Facing Severe Hunger as Winter Sets In
OCHA's assessment puts the scale of the crisis in stark numerical terms. An estimated 1.92 crore people, equivalent to 19.2 million, across Afghanistan are projected to experience extreme food insecurity during the winter season. Within that overall figure, about 50 lakh people, or roughly 5 million, could reach emergency levels of hunger, the most serious stage of the crisis flagged in the UN's warning.
The UN humanitarian office has made clear that the situation is not expected to remain static. The food crisis is forecast to worsen as the harsh winter takes hold between November and April, a window that stretches across the coldest part of the year in Afghanistan. Over those months, the number of people struggling to find enough to eat is expected to grow.
The window identified by OCHA is significant: it covers the period when the food situation is expected to be at its most precarious, and when the effects of deepening food insecurity will be felt across the country.
Key figures from the warning
- 19.2 million people (1.92 crore) are projected to face severe food insecurity this winter.
- About 5 million people (50 lakh) could reach emergency levels of hunger.
- The crisis is expected to deepen between November and April.
- Children and economically vulnerable families are expected to be hit hardest.
Children and Vulnerable Families Expected to Bear the Brunt
OCHA has singled out two groups as facing the greatest danger from the deepening crisis: children and economically vulnerable families. According to the UN office, the crisis is expected to hit these groups hardest as food insecurity spreads through the winter months. The UN's emphasis on these two groups points to where the consequences of the worsening crisis are expected to land first and most sharply.
For households that are already struggling economically, the warning underlines how little margin such families have when access to adequate food becomes harder to secure. Families with the fewest resources are the least able to absorb a prolonged shock of this kind, and OCHA's assessment indicates that they are precisely the households that will be most exposed in the difficult months ahead.
Children, meanwhile, are identified as being particularly at risk. The UN's assessment that they will be among those hit hardest reflects how vulnerable young people are when food supplies run short, especially during a winter in which the overall food security situation is expected to worsen rather than ease.
An Increasing Risk of Famine
The UN's warning is framed around an increasing risk of famine as winter approaches. While the figures distinguish between the much larger population facing severe food insecurity and the smaller group projected to reach emergency hunger levels, the direction of the crisis described by OCHA is unmistakably one of deterioration, not recovery.
The warning also arrives at a seasonal turning point. As winter approaches, OCHA identifies the coming months as the period in which the food crisis is expected to deteriorate further, sharpening the risks for the millions already counted among the food insecure.
The estimate that around 5 million people could slip into emergency levels of hunger represents the most acute edge of the emergency outlined by the UN. It is at this level that the danger highlighted in the warning is most concentrated, and it is this tier of the crisis that will define the humanitarian challenge Afghanistan faces between November and April.
UN Says the Situation Is Severe
Summing up the agency's assessment, OCHA spokesperson for Afghanistan Olga Cherevko said the situation is severe. Her remarks accompany the UN office's broader warning that the country's food security outlook will worsen, rather than improve, as winter sets in.
With the harsh winter months from November to April ahead, OCHA's message is that Afghanistan is heading into a period of deepening hunger for 19.2 million people, and of emergency-level food insecurity for about 5 million of them. The UN's warning makes clear that children and economically vulnerable families will be at the centre of that crisis, and that the coming winter will place the country's most exposed communities under serious strain.
