Afghanistan: Humanitarian Update, January 2026

Afghanistan humanitarian response in 2025: Needs, prioritization and reach

Humanitarian needs in Afghanistan remained extremely high in 2025, driven by overlapping and compounding shocks. An estimated 22.9 million people required humanitarian assistance, reflecting the cumulative impact of protracted crisis, climate-related hazards, natural disasters and large-scale population movements. Recurrent droughts, seasonal flash floods and earthquakes continued to act as threat multipliers, pushing already vulnerable communities into life-threatening conditions. In spring 2025, a severe drought devastated rain-fed agriculture, causing widespread harvest losses and forcing unsustainable groundwater extraction as water tables dropped sharply. Millions of farming and livestock-dependent households lost critical sources of food and income, increasing food insecurity, displacement and reliance on negative coping strategies.

Natural disasters further compounded humanitarian needs. On 31 August 2025, a magnitude 6+ earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, flattening entire villages and displacing thousands of people, with humanitarian needs expected to persist into 2026. A second 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the northern region on 3 November, underscoring Afghanistan’s seismic vulnerability. At the same time, large-scale population movements placed additional strain on already overstretched communities, with an estimated 2.78 million Afghans returning from neighbouring countries in 2025, many abruptly and with limited assets.

Against this backdrop of sustained and severe needs, Afghanistan’s humanitarian response in 2025 was shaped by the imperative to deliver life-saving assistance at scale amid escalating funding constraints. In March 2025, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Country Team undertook an urgent prioritization of the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) given dramatic and unprecedented funding cuts. Building on inter-sectoral severity analysis completed during the plan’s development, clusters identified 145 priority districts out of 401 nationwide, focusing on areas with the most acute and life-threatening needs.

This reprioritization was driven primarily by a significant decline in funding, from US$1.59 billion in 2024 to US$913 million in 2025, requiring a sharper focus on the most critical life-saving interventions. While the overall 2025 HNRP appeal of US$2.42 billion remained valid, clusters reviewed targets and associated costs for 78 of the 96 activities with budget lines — representing 81 per cent of all planned activities — to identify those addressing the most acute needs. This exercise resulted in reprioritized financial requirements of US$1.63 billion, reflecting difficult but necessary choices to ensure that limited resources were directed to populations most in need amid an increasingly constrained funding and geopolitical environment.[A1]

Between January and December 2025, humanitarian partners reached 17.1 million people with at least one form of assistance, compared to 22.4 million during the same period in 2024 — a 24 per cent decrease that reflects the tangible, on-the-ground impact of severely reduced funding. At the same time, approximately 4 million people benefited from three or more sectoral interventions, compared to 3.1 million in 2024, highlighting the positive effect of concentrating assistance in the highest-priority areas where needs were multidimensional. Food assistance continued to drive overall response reach, accounting for 61 per cent (10.5 million individuals) of all people assisted.

As of December 2025, the response was enabled by $913 million in funding, representing 38 per cent of requirements, supplemented by a small amount of carryover from 2024. Nevertheless, a substantial funding gap remained, meaning that only around one-third of the most urgently prioritized HNRP activities were covered. In this context, partners increasingly prioritized cost-effective delivery, strengthened inter-sectoral targeting, conducted bi-annual gap analyses to guide resource allocation, improved methodologies for calculating inter-sectoral reach and enhanced transparency in reporting, including clearer disaggregation of food assistance by distribution rounds.

Amid sustained needs and operational complexity, the ability of partners to continue delivering life-saving assistance depends on sufficient and flexible funding, enabling financial systems, assurances for aid worker safety and an environment that safeguards principled humanitarian action. Ensuring equitable access to assistance for women and girls and enabling Afghan women humanitarian workers to participate safely and meaningfully in the response, remains central to maximising humanitarian impact in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan battles harsh winter as humanitarian efforts intensify

Between 21 and 23 January, heavy snowfall, rain, storms and avalanches affected 15 provinces — including Badghis, Balkh, Bamyan, Daikundi, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Herat, Kabul, Maidan Wardak, Nuristan, Panjshir, Parwan, Sar-e Pul and Samangan — underscoring the harsh winter Afghanistan frequently endures. According to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), at least 61 people were killed and 110 injured, with hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged and livestock perished, leaving communities bereft of immediate means for survival. Snow and avalanche risks also closed major highways and inter-provincial roads, isolating villages and limiting access to essential supplies and services.

Humanitarian partners had already begun winterization efforts before the season, but the recent storms have underscored the criticality of this support. Food assistance has reached millions, with 2.3 million people already receiving aid and plans in place to reach another 2.1 million. Winter essentials have also been delivered to households across the country. Blankets, stoves and fuel have reached over 22,000 households, with remaining households in high-altitude, earthquake-affected districts prioritized for the coming weeks. Yet, shelter gaps remain, particularly in the eastern provinces affected by the earthquake.

Winter support is helping nearly 20,000 students keep learning, including 6,000 returnee children in the north and more than 13,500 in the east, with heaters, firewood, kits and cash assistance. Health and nutrition partners are working tirelessly to ensure children and vulnerable populations receive life-saving care, delivering winterization supplies to health facilities and pre-positioning medicines and heating support in affected areas.

Water, sanitation and hygiene efforts have reached thousands of families, particularly in the east and west, with further distributions planned for flood- and cold weather affected households. Protection programmes have supported over 92,000 people, focusing on children, the elderly and displaced people most exposed to the harsh winter conditions.

Despite these ongoing efforts, challenges remain. Remote and high-altitude communities, especially those affected by earthquakes, remain at risk. Limited funding and access continue to hinder operations. Humanitarian partners are coordinating closely with authorities to help communities survive the season, providing essential aid that saves lives and gives renewed hope until spring arrives.

Cracked walls, cold nights: Urgent needs in northern Afghanistan after the earthquake

In northern Afghanistan, winter has arrived and families are facing its harshest realities with homes damaged or destroyed by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake of 3 November 2025. In Faqir Abad village, Feroz Nakhchir district of Samangan Province, Ajab Khan describes the daily struggle: “The weather is very cold and the children are suffering.” His daughter, injured in the quake, remains fearful and children cry when brought near unstable houses. Similar stories are heard across Balkh’s Khulm district, where families are surviving with whatever is left standing.

UN assessments indicate widespread impact: nearly 4,000 families affected, with homes destroyed or damaged, 91 schools, and 18 water sources no longer usable, further disrupting daily life and increasing health risks.

Immediate needs are clear: winterized shelters, safe drinking water, heating and basic cooking supplies. Poverty and drought have already limited livelihoods, forcing some men to travel for daily labour that earns barely enough to survive.

Humanitarian partners have mobilized, and communities are noticing. Ajab Khan credits early food support and respectful treatment by aid workers. As temperatures drop, survival depends on small but critical items: a blanket, a sealed window, or a heater refill. “Warmth is not a luxury here — it is protection, it is health, it is dignity,” a local aid worker note.

Efforts are also being reinforced to protect women, girls, and families at higher risk. Emergency teams have conducted joint assessments, delivered reproductive health supplies, and provided psychosocial support. Inter-Agency Reproductive Health kits have reached Samangan Provincial Hospital and Khulm District Hospital, supporting up to 816 women of reproductive age, while mobile health teams bring care directly to the hardest-hit communities.

Winterized shelter remains the decisive line between hardship and harm. Urgent support is needed for the most vulnerable: female-headed households, people with disabilities, the injured, and families hosting others. Families are coping as best they can — living beside unstable walls, sharing space with relatives, relying on neighbours, and stretching limited cash to cover heating, water, food, and medicines. They prioritize aid that reaches them fastest — cash when markets function, in-kind when they do not. The goal is simple: keep families safe through the cold.

Families are already doing their part: clearing rubble, caring for the injured, and keeping children warm and calm. But without sustained and flexible support, winter survival remains uncertain.

Timely contributions can prevent avoidable illness and loss. They can expand winterized shelter and water repairs, deliver health and psychosocial services, provide protection and dignity for women and girls, and support cash assistance for basic needs. Investing in repaired and safer homes paired with local skills, stronger materials, repaired water systems, and reopened schools — can turn winter survival into long-term stability for communities in northern Afghanistan.

1. Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025 (December 2024) [EN/PS/Dari] - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb
2. Afghanistan: Dry Spell Monitoring - March 2025 - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb
3. Afghanistan: Eastern Region Earthquake Response Overview (As of 16 November 2025) - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb
4. Afghanistan Returnees Overview 1-31 Dec 2025 | United Nations in Afghanistan
5. Afghanistan: At a glance | Urgently Prioritized HNRP - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb
6. Afghanistan: Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025, Response Overview (1 January - 31 December 2025) - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb
7. This article was produced with the support of OCHA Afghanistan colleagues at the sub-national level, Nova Ratnanto and Mohammad Haroon Qadery.