Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis - CARE
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Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis

A young girl wipes her eyes with her balled fists and cries outside a tent.

CARE / Laura Gilmour

CARE / Laura Gilmour

Emergencies

After 18 years of crisis in Afghanistan, humanitarian needs in the country show no signs of abating.

About the Crisis in Afghanistan

The number of people with acute humanitarian needs doubled from 2018 to 2019, with 6.3 million people in current need of assistance.  

An unpredictable security situation, combined with a severe drought and flash flooding, has caused new displacements of more than 550,000 civilians for a total of more than 1.8 million people displaced in the country.  

The drought has unleashed a host of problems on already impoverished communities, reducing incomes by half, debilitating people’s health and well-being. In spring 2019, sudden heavy rainfall caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon led to flash flooding, which destroyed homes and makeshift shelters housing displaced people.  

The number of people in Afghanistan with humanitarian needs doubled from 2018 to 2019

6.3 million people are in current need of assistance

What CARE is Doing

CARE works in 9 different provinces and 27 districts in the north and northeast regions of the country, with both development and humanitarian programming. It works both directly and through local partners.  

CARE focuses on education, emergency preparedness, drought response, and assisting displaced communities with emergency cash, water, sanitation and hygiene practices, and healthcare through mobile health clinics. CARE is also focusing its response on protection, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence prevention.  

CARE also plans to expand its assistance to western part of Afghanistan, where the current highest number of internally displaced peoples and returnees currently reside.