Afghanistan ranks among the top nine countries with more than one million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity, according to the Global Report on Food Crises 2025 (GRFC), jointly produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) and partner agencies.
The report says that 3.6 million Afghans are expected to face IPC Phase 4 levels of food insecurity—the second-highest classification before famine.
The country joins a grim list that includes Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, and Pakistan, where conflict, economic shocks, and climate-related disasters are pushing millions into crisis. Sudan tops the list with 8.5 million people in IPC Phase 4 and an additional 800,000 in Phase 5, categorized as famine.
The World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan described the data as “not the records we want to break.” While Afghanistan saw slight improvements in food security conditions in 2024, the sharp reduction in humanitarian funding remains a major concern. The GRFC warns that operational disruptions due to budget shortfalls—alongside persistent insecurity—are compounding the crisis, with nutrition services for millions of children at risk.
The WFP stressed the need for urgent and sustained donor support to prevent a further deterioration in Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation. With humanitarian funding expected to decline by up to 45 percent globally in 2025, the report warns of a worsening outlook, particularly in low-income countries like Afghanistan.
In its analysis, the GRFC attributes Afghanistan’s food insecurity to a combination of economic shocks, persistent poverty, and fragile governance structures, exacerbated by a withdrawal of development aid and banking restrictions following the Taliban’s return to power.
Despite efforts to scale back operations to target the most vulnerable, agencies say current resources are insufficient to meet the scale of need. The report calls on international partners to maintain food security as a priority and to act decisively to prevent further deterioration in Afghanistan and other high-risk countries.
