Nearly 5 million mothers and children in Afghanistan are suffering from malnutrition as the country’s hunger crisis deepens, the World Food Programme said Friday.

Rania Dagash, WFP’s deputy regional director, warned that overlapping crises have pushed millions of Afghans to the brink of collapse.

The agency has forecast that by 2025, acute malnutrition will reach its highest recorded level in Afghanistan, with more than 4.7 million children and women requiring urgent treatment. UN figures show that every 10 seconds a child in the country becomes malnourished.

Afghanistan’s health system collapsed after the Taliban takeover in 2021, with hundreds of clinics closing. The crisis has been compounded by cuts in US aid and repeated natural disasters, including floods and earthquakes, leaving millions without access to food and healthcare.

Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly appealed for sustained international support, warning that without immediate action, Afghanistan faces a worsening emergency that could claim countless young lives.