HAMILTON, Canada

The UN humanitarian chief on Wednesday warned that Afghanistan is sliding deeper into crisis as mass refugee returns, rising hunger, and shrinking resources converge, leaving millions in increasingly "precarious" conditions.

Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council that Afghanistan will remain one of the world's largest humanitarian emergencies next year.

"Nearly 22 million people will continue to require humanitarian help in 2026, third only to Sudan and Yemen in scale," he said, presenting the UN's appeal for $1.7 billion to reach 17.5 million people.

Noting that the UN has been forced to sharply narrow its targets due to limited resources, he said: "We have further hyper-prioritized our plan to target 3.9 million people in most urgent need, and for this we need $375.9 million."

"For the first time in four years, the number of people facing hunger has gone up, now reaching 17.4 million people," Fletcher said, adding that "essential services, already insufficient and uneven across the country, are stretched to breaking point as Afghan refugees return to Afghanistan in record numbers."

Highlighting the large scale of returns, he said: "Over 2.6 million Afghans returned in 2025, bringing the number of Afghans who have returned in the last 2 years to over 4 million."

He stressed that the situation for these returnees is "particularly precarious," noting that "women and children made up 60% of all returns this year, returning to a country where women and girls are denied opportunities to study, work, or even, in some cases, receive health care."

"With 2.5 million Afghans still in Pakistan, a large majority of whom have recently seen their legal status in-country revoked, the potential impact of further mass returns is alarming," he said.

Despite narrow funding, Fletcher further stated that "through the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, we have released over $40 million in additional funding to support the surge in returns, the earthquake response and anticipatory action to stave off the worst effects of the drought."

Emphasizing the dire consequences of underfunding, he warned that "as we reach the end of the year, underfunding has forced service closures, resulted in scaled-back assistance to millions, and ultimately have cost lives."

"This winter is the first in years with almost no international food distribution," Fletcher said, noting that only around one million people received food during the lean season, down from 5.6 million in 2024. With "3.7 million children in need of nutrition assistance, including 1.7 million at risk of death if not treated," he warned that the results "will be catastrophic."

Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, echoed the alarm, saying: "The deteriorating human rights situation is not the only crisis affecting the Afghan people."

She noted that "more than 23 million Afghans, over half the population, continue to require humanitarian assistance in 2026."

Gagnon highlighted drought, land degradation, economic strain, and rising population pressures as deepening the crisis.

She also warned of escalating tensions with Pakistan, with "deadly cross-border exchanges of fire and airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties," while welcoming Islamabad's recent decision to allow humanitarian supplies to cross the border.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, she stressed that "an opportunity exists to build on the current relative stability" toward an Afghanistan "at peace, reintegrated into the global community and where the human rights of all Afghans are realized."