Leading UK aid agencies will launch a joint fundraising appeal on Wednesday 15 December as a catastrophic rise in severe hunger sweeps Afghanistan, with eight million people at risk of starvation over the harsh winter months. Children are already dying, and a million more are at risk. 

Leading aid workers today sounded the alarm to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and said there was a ‘small window of opportunity’ to respond before the freezing winter sets in. Conflict and economic collapse, coupled with the worst drought in 27 years and the Covid-19 pandemic, have brought Afghanistan to a tipping point. 

The people of Afghanistan are facing a crisis of catastrophic proportions. 22 million face acute hunger; over eight million are on the brink of famine. Lives are already being lost. With snow falling in Kabul and the cold about to set in to block off supply routes, aid workers say there is an urgency to save lives. 

HRH The Prince of Wales has issued a message of support for the DEC’s Afghanistan Crisis Appeal which has now raised more than £17.5 million in under a week, with aid already being distributed on the ground.