'Just bread and tea': WFP says aid cuts to Afghanistan leave millions hungry this winter

Islamabad: The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan says the agency can only feed half the millions of Afghans in need after cuts in international aid and an impending freeze in US foreign funding.

Many people were living on just "bread and tea", WFP Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters.

Afghanistan was tipped to the brink of economic crisis in 2021 as the Taliban took over and all development and security assistance to the country was frozen, with restrictions also placed on the banking sector.

Since then humanitarian aid - aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organisations and bypassing government control - has filled some of the gap. But donors have been cutting steadily in recent years, concerned by Taliban restrictions on women, including their order that Afghan female NGO employees stop work, and competing global crises.

Lee told Reuters shortly before finishing her three-year term in Afghanistan that funding cuts had meant that roughly half the 15 million Afghans in acute need of food were not receiving rations during this year's harsh winter.

"That's over 6 million people who are probably eating one or two meals a day and it's just bread and tea," she said in an interview on Saturday. "Unfortunately this is what the situation looks like for so many that have been removed from assistance."

Afghanistan's humanitarian plan was only just over half funded in 2024, according to UN data, and aid officials have flagged fears this could fall further this year.

The US State Department issued a "stop-work" order on Friday for all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to a cable reported by Reuters, after President Donald Trump ordered a pause to review if aid allocation was aligned with his foreign policy.

It was not immediately clear how that would impact Afghanistan's humanitarian operations, which in 2024 were over 40 per cent funded by the United States, the largest donor.

"I think any potential reduction in assistance for Afghanistan is of course concerning...whether it is assistance to WFP or another actor," Lee said.

"The levels of need are just so high here in Afghanistan. I certainly hope that any decisions made, any implementation of decisions made take into consideration the needs of the people – the women, the children," she said.

Western diplomats and humanitarian officials have said aid is dropping to Afghanistan in part due to global emergencies in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza and also because of concerns with Taliban restrictions on women.

Last week, the International Criminal Court prosecutor announced he had applied for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.

Lee said the operating environment had been a "rollercoaster" in the last three years, but that WFP was trying to prove to donors concerned about the plethora of restrictions on women that they were still reaching female beneficiaries and their children with aid.

Though the Taliban have said female Afghan NGO workers must stop work, many humanitarian organisations have said they have been granted exemptions, especially in areas like health.

Lee said WFP had adapted and been able to reach women despite funding cuts and official restrictions.