One month after a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on 31 August, followed by a series of aftershocks, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) continues to provide rapid food assistance and logistical support to affected communities. The earthquakes have compounded an already severe food security and nutrition crisis, leaving more than nine million people—roughly one in five Afghans—facing acute food insecurity, with record-high rates of malnutrition among children and mothers.
The hardest-hit provinces, Kunar and Nangarhar, were already grappling with crisis-level malnutrition due to severe reductions in humanitarian funding and services. The earthquake has intensified the strain on these communities, particularly as an influx of Afghan families forcibly expelled from Pakistan arrives in the region, many returning to destroyed homes and farmland. WFP teams report alarming levels of acute malnutrition among returnee mothers and children, raising fears that the situation will worsen as winter approaches, isolating remote, mountainous communities with snow and rain.
WFP was the first international agency to reach Kunar province, delivering food aid within hours of the earthquake. Since then, emergency food assistance has reached more than 58,000 people across Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman provinces. WFP’s United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has facilitated flights to transport passengers and relief cargo to Jalalabad, near the quake’s epicenter, and deployed a helicopter to deliver supplies and staff to remote, hard-to-reach areas.
In addition to direct aid, WFP has coordinated logistics for the wider humanitarian community, transporting relief supplies from multiple locations to affected communities and setting up storage tents to support ongoing operations. To strengthen communication and coordination, WFP deployed VSAT internet and UHF radio services in Kunar and installed solar power systems to provide sustainable energy for critical operations.
Responding to the quake is challenging in Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain, where poor road networks and limited phone connectivity leave many communities completely cut off. Nationwide, WFP faces significant funding shortfalls, currently able to support fewer than one million people per month. The earthquake has placed even greater pressure on these limited resources. The total funding gap for WFP’s operations in Afghanistan over the next six months stands at US$622 million.
WFP’s earthquake response in eastern Afghanistan has been made possible thanks to contributions from the Asian Development Bank, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
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