Following decades of conflict, people in Afghanistan are now grappling with another deadly issue as almost universal poverty grips the nation: soaring hunger.

The Afghan economy had been deteriorating long before the government changed, but over the course of the Taliban’s first year back in power the country has suffered an economic implosion. This has led to almost 20 million people experiencing acute levels of food insecurity and put the lives of 1.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition at risk.

At the health clinic we support in Shah Joy district – one of the poorest and most remote parts of Zabul province – over 50 percent of the children we screened for malnutrition in the first six months of this year were found to have acute malnutrition.

And in the hospitals where the most complicated cases are brought for urgent treatment, the situation is becoming more serious by the day. In June, the nutrition ward at the government-run hospital in Shah Joy saw a staggering 90 percent increase in the number of children admitted for severe acute malnutrition with complications compared to the same period last year. And in the first six months of 2022, the Provincial Hospital we support in Zabul saw a 70 percent increase in the number of malnourished children admitted for inpatient care compared to the same period in 2021.