KABUL, Afghanistan — More than 38,000 people in Afghanistan, half of them children, were displaced by extreme weather in early 2024, Save the Children reported, surpassing the total number of displacements recorded last year.
“Despite having low carbon emissions, the country faces severe climate impacts like droughts, floods, and storms,” the organization said in its report.
Afghanistan is ranked as the sixth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the United Nations. The combination of environmental crises and a deepening humanitarian emergency has disproportionately affected children, watchdog organizations say.
A new report from the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), jointly published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), reveals that 70 percent of Afghan children under the age of 18 live in poverty, compared to 57.8 percent of adults.
The findings underscore the severity of Afghanistan’s poverty crisis, with the report noting that children account for half of the global poor population. In Afghanistan, the proportion is even more dire, with 58.9 percent of the country’s poor being children.
