UNICEF has warned that 3.7 million children under the age of five in Afghanistan are at increased risk of malnutrition as worsening food and nutrition insecurity threatens to deepen the country’s child health crisis ahead of the annual peak wasting season.

In a new report released on Sunday, Too Little, Too Late: The Diet Crisis Facing Young Children in Afghanistan, UNICEF said child food and nutrition insecurity is one of the main drivers of undernutrition, urging immediate action to protect children’s diets before conditions deteriorate further.

For the first time, UNICEF has measured child malnutrition alongside the lived experience of food and nutrition insecurity among the same group of children across all 34 provinces. The assessment identified early warning signs such as reduced dietary diversity, skipped meals, children eating less than they need and going hungry.

The report comes as Afghanistan enters the peak wasting season between July and September. According to the latest Nutrition Cluster data, wasting has already worsened in 26 of the country’s 34 provinces compared with 2025, signalling an earlier and more severe crisis than expected.

Children under the age of two are the hardest hit, accounting for 83 percent of severe acute malnutrition cases and 77 percent of moderate acute malnutrition cases.

“Young children in Afghanistan are being pushed closer to malnutrition before the peak season has even begun,” said UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale.

“This new evidence gives us an opportunity to act before children reach the point of severe malnutrition. When families begin reducing meals or cutting back on nutritious foods, it is not only a sign of hardship. It is a warning that a child may soon become dangerously wasted. Treatment saves lives, but we must also invest in prevention, starting with the diets of the youngest children and pregnant women.”

UNICEF said worsening malnutrition is being driven not only by poor diets and increasing food insecurity but also by disease outbreaks, low immunisation coverage, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene services, as well as growing funding and supply shortages.

The agency warned that children living in severely food-insecure households are up to six times more likely to suffer from wasting during peak malnutrition periods.

Wasting is a severe and potentially life-threatening form of malnutrition in which a child becomes dangerously thin for their height, often due to inadequate food intake, illness or a combination of both.

UNICEF is calling for urgent investment to expand preventive nutrition programmes, including its First Foods Initiative for children aged six to 23 months, while strengthening health, nutrition, water, sanitation, education and social protection services.

With the peak wasting season fast approaching, UNICEF said the window to prevent more children from becoming severely malnourished is rapidly closing and called for urgent, flexible funding to help reach vulnerable families before food insecurity turns into a life-threatening emergency.