Afghan Mother Grieves Loss of Three Children to Malnutrition as Crisis Deepens

Mon Sep 29 2025 03:25:35 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

In a heart-wrenching account, Nazo, an Afghan mother, reveals her anguish over the tragic loss of her three sons due to malnutrition. As Afghanistan faces an unprecedented hunger crisis, families are struggling to survive amidst diminishing aid.

Nazo and her husband, Ghulam, have lost three children to malnutrition in their impoverished settlement near Herat. Their plight reflects a wider tragedy in Afghanistan, where millions of children face starvation due to a severe food crisis exacerbated by decreased international aid and the Taliban's policies.

Gusts of wind blew dust up off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo walked towards the graveyard where all their children are buried.

They showed us the graves of the three boys they lost in the past two years – one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan and most recently, three-month-old Faisal Ahmad. All three suffered from malnutrition, say Ghulam and Nazo.

Can you imagine how painful it's been for me to lose three children? One minute there's a baby in your arms, the next minute they are empty, says Nazo. I hope every day that angels would somehow put my babies back in our home.

There are days the couple go without food. They break walnut shells for a living in the Sheidaee settlement just outside the city of Herat in western Afghanistan and receive no help from the Taliban government or from NGOs.

Watching helplessly as my children cried out of hunger, it felt like my body was erupting in flames. It felt like someone was cutting me into half with a saw from my head to my feet, said Ghulam.

The deaths of their children are not recorded anywhere, but it's evidence of a silent wave of mortality engulfing Afghanistan's youngest, as the country is pushed into what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.

We started the year with the highest increase in child malnutrition ever recorded in Afghanistan. But things have got worse from there, says John Aylieff, the World Food Programme's country director.

Aid has sharply declined because the single largest donor, the US, stopped nearly all aid to Afghanistan earlier this year. But WFP says eight or nine other donors who funded them in the last two years have also stopped this year, and many others are giving much less than they were last year.

The Taliban government's policies affect how much the world is willing to help, with the enforcement of bans on women working for NGOs further complicating humanitarian efforts.

Nazo's story is a poignant reminder of the immense challenges facing families in Afghanistan today, where malnutrition threatens the lives of over three million children.