Afghanistan

Seven-month-old Muskan* from northern Afghanistan received timely treatment for severe acute malnutrition thanks to an IHA MAPLE-funded Save the Children health facility, leading to significant improvement in her health as she continues her recovery.

In a remote village in northern Afghanistan affected by explosive remnants of war, Save the Children, with support from the Security and Rule of Law (NL–SROL) programme, provided mine risk awareness training to children and communities.

Through targeted support to 196 households, Save the Children, with funding from SOS Children on the Move, helped children leave hazardous work, return to learning, and begin building safer and more hopeful futures.

Through the project “Empowering Persons with Disabilities, with a Special Focus on Children with Disabilities”, Save the Children supported families to turn skills into sustainable livelihoods.

Women in a community in southern Afghanistan now have access to safer, free, and more dignified maternal healthcare through the rehabilitation of a clinic delivery room supported by the Integrated Health Assistance, Maternal and Perinatal Life-Saving Emergencies (IHA MAPLE) project.

Between January 2025 and January 2026, 338 girls and boys were killed or maimed in Afghanistan by explosive ordnance, including remnants of war, such as landmines and other devices, according to the country’s mine action directorate. Children accounted for nearly 70% of all explosive ordnance casualties during this period.

About 85% of families from a survey of 535 households reported a significant or moderate decrease in the availability of water in September 2025 compared with 2024 and about half of the children in the impacted provinces do not have daily access to clean water.

Food prices have surged in some of the most food-insecure countries in the Middle East and wider region due to the ongoing conflict, threatening to push the most vulnerable families further into hunger as Eid approaches.

The conflict in the Middle East and wider region is obstructing key delivery routes for humanitarian supplies, delaying lifesaving medical shipments for at least 410,000 children in three countries, said Save the Children, warning the global impact will only grow.

At least 400 people have been killed and 250 others injured, following an attack at a hospital facility in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, according to the country's defacto authorities.

About 134,000 people have been affected by disruptions to Save the Children’s work, including health, nutrition, child protection and education programmes

The earthquake in eastern Afghanistan on 31 August last year was one of the deadliest to ever hit the country, killing more than 2,000 people and destroying or damaging more than 8,000 homes, forcing children and families into tents.

Analysis of new hunger data found that just over 9 million children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger before March 2026.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday, with the epicentre in Samangan province, an hour from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Severe shaking was also felt in the capital, Kabul, with tremors reported as far away as Pakistan. The tremors caused panic and terror for children and their families, forcing them to run from their homes in provinces across northern Afghanistan where temperatures are dropping as winter sets in.

Mujib Ur Rehman Hamdard, the head of Save the Children Afghanistan's Kunar Field Office, shares his experience of the Afghanistan earthquake and the initial response one month on from the 6.0 magnitude earthquake which devastated parts of eastern Afghanistan, including Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, on the 1st September 2025.

Children make up more than half of the about 2,100 confirmed deaths to date, according to new data from the UN. More than 500 girls and 650 boys lost their lives in the earthquakes, the first of which struck at night on 31 August, flattening homes in seconds

Pakiza*, 25, a midwife with four years of experience at Save the Children, travelled through blocked roads and rubble to get to the earthquake affected areas, where she was quickly asked by residents asked her to help a pregnant woman who was in active labour.

A rolling wave of aftershocks in eastern Afghanistan is terrifying children who have lost families and homes in the country’s deadliest earthquake in nearly 30 years with the death toll rising to over 2,200.

As a ruthless 6.0-magnitude earthquake ripped through eastern Afghanistan this week, it flattened entire mountain villages and shattered the fragile lives of thousands, particularly children, who were already grappling with soaring humanitarian needs and funding cuts.

Thousands of children need of food, water and shelter in eastern Afghanistan as teams battle against time to rescue injured people from mountainous and remote villages destroyed by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake.

Rescue teams are racing to Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan where a devastating earthquake has killed at least 600 people and injured more than 3,000 including many children