Briefing the Security Council, Georgette Gagnon, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, and Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, mentioned almost half the inhabitants will want safety and humanitarian help in 2026.
Women and women stay “systematically excluded” from nearly all points of public life, Ms. Gagnon mentioned, because the ban on secondary and better training for women has now entered its fourth 12 months, depriving the nation of future docs, academics and leaders.
“Media freedom is more and more restricted. Journalists face intimidation, detention and censorship, lowering the house for public debate and public participation,” she added.
Afghans – each ladies and men – additionally face day by day intrusions underneath the de facto authorities’ regulation on the “propagation of advantage and prevention of vice,” she added, describing a sample of systematic interference in personal life.
Humanitarian wants surging
At the identical time, humanitarian wants are surging. Mr. Fletcher mentioned that almost 22 million folks will want help subsequent 12 months, with Afghanistan now rating among the many world’s largest humanitarian crises.
“For the primary time in 4 years, the variety of folks going through starvation has gone up,” he warned. Some 17.4 million Afghans at the moment are meals insecure, whereas large funding cuts have left the response “stretched to breaking level.”
More than 300 diet supply factors have closed, leaving 1.1 million youngsters with out lifesaving diet, whereas 1.7 million face the danger of loss of life with out therapy. The well being system can also be buckling: 422 well being amenities have been closed in 2025, chopping three million folks off from lifesaving care.
The 12 months 2025 has seen a marked enhance in refugee returnees to Afghanistan. Pictured right here, a scene on the Islam Qala border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran.
Refugees returning to hardship
Adding to the pressure, Afghanistan has seen document refugee returns, with over 2.6 million Afghans returning in 2025 alone, bringing the two-year complete to greater than 4 million. Most arrive with few possessions and are absorbed into already impoverished communities.
“Women and youngsters made up 60 per cent of all returns this 12 months,” Mr. Fletcher famous – returning to a rustic the place ladies are barred from training, work and, in some instances, healthcare.
Economic pressures are worsening regardless of modest progress. While GDP is anticipated to rise by 4.5 per cent, per capita revenue will fall by about 4 per cent attributable to inhabitants progress, in line with World Bank figures cited by Ms. Gagnon.
Rural livelihoods have additionally been devastated by the third 12 months of the opium cultivation ban. Although welcomed internationally, UN businesses report a 48 per cent drop in rural incomes, with extra help wanted for various livelihoods.
Aid supply crippled
While safety situations seem calmer than in previous a long time, tensions with Pakistan are rising amid cross-border exchanges linked to militant exercise. At the identical time, the closure of key border posts for 2 months has damage commerce and civilian life on either side.
Meanwhile, ladies’s participation in humanitarian work stays underneath direct assault. Since September, feminine nationwide UN workers have been barred from accessing UN premises nationwide, a restriction Mr. Fletcher known as “unacceptable” and warned was crippling support supply.
“There might be no efficient humanitarian response with out ladies,” he mentioned. “Afghanistan wants them.”
A household runs throughout a dusty road in Herat, Afghanistan.
Rights more and more out of attain
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) additionally warned that rights within the nation stay “out of attain for too many,” particularly for girls and women. Involuntary returns are additionally putting journalists, former officers and civil society figures at heightened danger of reprisals.
“Human rights aren’t elective. They are the on a regular basis necessities that maintain life,” Ms. Gagnon mentioned in a separate UNAMA assertion. “For Afghanistan, guaranteeing ladies and women can be taught, work, and take part totally is indispensable to restoration.”
Call for worldwide help
Despite extreme constraints, the UN continues to ship support. More than $40 million in emergency funding has been launched in latest months to reply to earthquakes, drought and mass returns.
But Mr. Fletcher warned that underfunding is now costing lives.
“As we glance to 2026, we danger an additional contraction of lifesaving assist at a time when meals insecurity, well being wants a pressure on fundamental providers and safety dangers are all rising,” he mentioned.
He harassed that with out pressing consideration of and help from the worldwide group, the disaster would solely worsen.
