KABUL, Afghanistan – For 10 hours a day, Rahimullah sells socks from his cart in eastern Kabul, earning between $4.50 and $6 a day. It's a pittance, but it's all he needs to feed his family of five.
Rahimullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, is one of millions of Afghans who rely on humanitarian aid from both Afghan authorities and international aid organizations to survive. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated in an article on its website Monday that some 22.9 million people — almost half the country's population — will need help in 2025.
But deep cuts in international aid, including the end of U.S. aid to programs such as food distribution run by the U.N. World Food Program, have cut that lifeline.
The World Food Program warned last week that more than 17 million people in Afghanistan now face crisis levels of winter hunger, 3 million more than were at risk more than a year ago.
The aid cuts come as Afghanistan faces tough economic times, periodic droughts, two deadly earthquakes and a massive influx of Afghan refugees expelled from countries such as Iran and Pakistan. The resulting multiple shocks have placed severe pressure on resources, including housing and food.
UN appeals for help
Tom Fletcher, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, told the Security Council in mid-December that the situation was worsened by “overlapping shocks,” including recent earthquakes and increasing restrictions on access to humanitarian aid and personnel.
While Fletcher said nearly 22 million Afghans will need U.N. aid in 2026, his organization will focus on the 3.9 million people most in need of life-saving aid due to dwindling donor contributions.
Fletcher said this winter was “the first in many years that there has been virtually no international food distribution.”
“As a result, only about 1 million of the most vulnerable people received food assistance during the 2025 lean season,” compared with 5.6 million last year, he said.
The year has been devastating for UN aid agencies, which have had to cut thousands of jobs and cut costs due to aid cuts.
“We are grateful to all of you who continue to support Afghanistan. But as we look to 2026, we risk further cuts to life-saving assistance – at a time when food insecurity, health needs, pressure on essential services and protection risks are all growing,” Fletcher said.
Returning refugees
The return of millions of refugees has increased pressure on an already fragile system. Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Kabir said on Sunday that 7.1 million Afghan refugees have returned to the country over the past four years, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
29-year-old Rahimullah was one of them. The former Afghan army soldier fled to neighboring Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in 2021. Two years later he was deported back to Afghanistan and initially received assistance in the form of money and food.
“This help helped me a lot,” he said. But without this, “now I have nothing to live on. God forbid, if I were to face a serious illness or some other problem, it would be very difficult for me to cope with it, because I do not have extra money to spend.”
The massive influx of former refugees has also caused rents to soar. Rahimullah's landlord has nearly doubled the rent for his tiny two-room house with walls made of half concrete, half clay, and a homemade clay oven for cooking. Instead of 4,500 Afghanis (about $67), he now wants 8,000 Afghanis (about $120), an amount that Rahimullah cannot afford. So he, his wife, daughter and two young sons will have to move next month. They don't know where.
Before the Taliban came to power, Rahimullah had a decent salary and his wife worked as a teacher. But the new government's draconian restrictions on women and girls mean women are banned from almost all jobs and his wife is unemployed.
“The current situation is such that even if we find money for flour, we don’t have it for butter, and even if we find money for butter, we won’t be able to pay the rent. And there are also extra bills for electricity,” Rahimullah said.
Harsh winters add to misery
Sherin Gul in Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan province is in despair. In 2023, her family of 12 received supplies of flour, oil, rice, beans, legumes, salt and biscuits. It was a salvation.
But it only lasted six months. Now there is nothing. According to her, her husband is old and weak and cannot work. The family has 10 children, seven girls and three boys, ranging in age from 7 to 27, and the burden of providing for the family has fallen on her 23-year-old son, the only one old enough to work. But even he finds only occasional work.
“There are 12 of us… and one person working cannot cover the costs,” she said. “We're in big trouble.”
Sometimes neighbors take pity on them and feed them. Often they are all starving.
“There were times when we had nothing to eat at night, and my small children fell asleep without food,” Gul said. “I only gave them green tea and they fell asleep crying.”
Before the Taliban came to power, Gul worked as a cleaner and earned just enough to feed her family. But the ban on women working left her unemployed, and she said she had developed a nervous breakdown and was often sick.
Their suffering is compounded by the bitter cold of the northern Afghan winter, when snow stops construction work where her son can sometimes find work. Plus additional costs for firewood and charcoal.
“If this situation continues like this, we may face severe famine,” Gul said. “And then it will be very difficult for us to survive in such cold weather.”
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Jamie Keaten in Geneva and Elena Bekatoros in Athens contributed to this report.
