Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, aid official says

Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, an aid agency official said Tuesday.

The warning follows the cancellation of foreign aid contracts by President Donald Trump's administration, including to Afghanistan where more than half of the population needs humanitarian assistance to survive.

Action Against Hunger initially stopped all U.S.-funded activities in March after the money dried up suddenly. But it kept the most critical services going in northeastern Badakhshan province and the capital Kabul through its own budget, a measure that stopped this month.

Its therapeutic feeding unit in Kabul is empty and closing this week. There are no patients, and staff contracts are ending because of the U.S. funding cuts.

"If we don't treat children with acute malnutrition there is a very high risk of (them) dying," Action Against Hunger's country director, Cobi Rietveld, told The Associated Press. "No child should die because of malnutrition. If we don't fight hunger, people will die of hunger. If they don't get medical care, there is a high risk of dying. They don't get medical care, they die."

More than 3.5 million children in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, an increase of 20% from 2024. Decades of conflict - including the 20-year U.S. war with the Taliban - as well as entrenched poverty and climate shocks have contributed to the country's humanitarian crisis.

Last year, the United States provided 43% of all international humanitarian funding to Afghanistan.

Rietveld said there were other nongovernmental organizations dealing with funding cuts to Afghanistan. "So when we cut the funding, there will be more children who are going to die of malnutrition."

The children who came to the feeding unit often could not walk or even crawl. Sometimes they were unable to eat because they didn’t have the energy. All the services were provided free of charge, including three meals a day.

Rietveld said children would need to be referred to other places, where there was less capacity and technical knowledge.

Dr. Abdul Hamid Salehi said Afghan mothers were facing a crisis. Poverty levels among families meant it was impossible to treat severely malnourished children in private clinics.

"People used to come to us in large numbers, and they are still hoping and waiting for this funding to be found again or for someone to sponsor us so that we can resume our work and start serving patients once more."