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Drought compounds humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as conflict intensifies
Millions of Afghans are struggling to put food on the table as prolonged drought disrupts supplies in a country reeling from a surge in violence as U.S.-led foreign troops complete their withdrawal.
Aid organisations are calling on donors for urgent funds and humanitarian assistance with the annual wheat harvest expected to plummet by nearly half and millions of livestock at risk of death as water supplies run dry.
“It’s a multiple shock,” said Necephor Mghendi, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Afghanistan.
“Generally, there has been an impact on availability and distribution of food … and the conflict is causing internal displacement, which means increased demand for resources in certain regions.”
The entire country is facing moderate to severe drought, President Ashraf Ghani said in late June, acknowledging that the national disaster management budget was not enough to cover what experts say is one of the worst droughts in decades in terms of geographic scale.
“We … will not allow the country to face famine,” Ghani said in a statement. “Our effort is to address all districts, even those under the Taliban control.”
The Islamist insurgents have stepped up their campaign to defeat Ghani’s U.S.-backed government as foreign forces leave after 20 years of conflict and have swept into numerous rural districts across the country.
With very little functioning irrigation, Afghanistan relies on snow melting in its mountains to keep its rivers flowing and fields watered during the summer and snowfall last winter was again very low.
Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist at Climate Analytics, said a La Niña phenomenon and a weakening jet stream moving weather systems more slowly across the planet could be factors behind Afghanistan‘s extremely dry weather.
While it is difficult to link individual events to climate change, scientists agree that global warming driven by greenhouse gas emissions is contributing to extreme weather around the world.
“Afghanistan is a good example of climate injustice. It has historically no role in the climate change mess but they are bearing the brunt of it,” Saeed said.
Afghanistan was one of 23 countries the United Nations identified as “hunger hotspots” in a report last month, with at least 12 million people out of a population estimated at 36 million facing a food security crisis of not knowing when or where their next meal will come from.
The IFRC is trying to raise US$16.5 million but has managed less than half of that, Mghendi said.
“It’s a dire humanitarian situation that requires as much support as possible to get the very basics,” Mghendi said.
Noorullah Noori, Afghanistan’s Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs, held a phone conversation with Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, to discuss bilateral border cooperation.
According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening border collaboration, with a particular focus on the ongoing renovation and updating of border markers. They also agreed to accelerate joint technical and legal meetings to enhance coordination.
As part of the agreement, the next meeting of senior border officials from Afghanistan and Iran is scheduled to take place in Iran in 1405 (2026–2027).
The Director General of the OIC Mission in Kabul, Mohammed Saeed Alayyash, met on Sunday with Rolf Dieter Reinhard, Head of the German Liaison Office for Afghanistan in Doha and Acting Chargé d’Affaires of the German Embassy in Afghanistan.
During the discussion, both sides exchanged views on the latest developments in Afghanistan. They focused on the security situation, as well as the humanitarian and economic conditions faced by the Afghan people.
The two officials also reviewed recent political developments and broader challenges in the country, highlighting the need for continued international engagement and support.
The meeting emphasized the importance of ongoing cooperation and coordination between the OIC Mission and the German side in addressing Afghanistan’s challenges and in supporting efforts to promote stability and improve the humanitarian situation.
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Pakistan president claims situation in Afghanistan is ‘similar to or worse than pre-9/11’’
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that the presence of militant groups in the region poses risks to global peace, and repeated Islamabad’s concerns regarding what it describes as the activities of “terrorist organisations operating from Afghanistan.”
Zardari made the remarks in a statement issued Sunday, as he thanked world leaders for expressing solidarity with Pakistan following the recent attack on an imambargah in Islamabad, which left dozens dead and many others wounded. The incident was claimed by Daesh militant group.
According to the statement from the President’s Secretariat, Zardari said Pakistan remains committed to combating terrorism and stressed that no single country can address the threat alone.
“Pakistan has long maintained that terrorism cannot be confronted by a single country in isolation,” he was quoted as saying.
Citing Pakistan’s experience, he said in the statement that whenever “terrorist groups are allowed space, facilitation or impunity beyond national borders, the consequences are borne by innocent civilians all over the world.”
Zardari further claimed that the situation in Afghanistan under the Islamic Emirate authorities has created conditions “similar to or worse than pre-9/11,” and said this has influenced security developments across the region. IEA has repeatedly rejected such allegations, insisting that Afghan soil is not used against any country.
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