Afghanistan — humanitarian situation

Afghanistan continues to face compounding humanitarian pressures driven by large-scale returns from Iran and Pakistan, protracted food insecurity, and a deteriorating protection environment for women and girls. UNHCR's ongoing emergency response updates for both the Iran-Afghanistan and Pakistan-Afghanistan corridors document sustained return flows as of early October 2026, continuing a pattern that has strained reception and reintegration capacity across border provinces UNHCR, IOM. Food security remains a central concern, with Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes projected to persist through at least January 2027 in Daykundi, Faryab, Ghor, Badakhshan, Nimroz, and Kunar provinces, constrained by limited income-earning opportunities despite an expected above-average winter precipitation outlook favorable to winter wheat cultivation FEWS NET. FAO's twelfth round of DIEM-Monitoring highlights additional risks to smallholder farmers from fertilizer price shocks linked to the Strait of Hormuz crisis, threatening input access and future harvests FAO. Health concerns persist with wild poliovirus transmission ongoing, with 35 WPV1 cases confirmed in Afghanistan in 2026 to date, alongside continued environmental detections WHO. Protection conditions have sharply deteriorated, with UNAMA verifying the arrest or detention of at least 52 women and one girl by de facto authorities in Herat and Kabul between July and September 2026, alongside additional threats of arrest; UNAMA cautions that underreporting linked to protection and stigma concerns likely means actual figures are higher UNAMA. In response to these compounding protection risks, a new Protection Coordination Group was established under the humanitarian country team's revised aid architecture in February 2026 to consolidate national protection coordination (Protection Cluster, UNHCR). On the funding and response side, an ECHO evaluation of EU humanitarian interventions in Afghanistan from 2020–2024 notes approximately €771 million disbursed through 33