Afghanistan Times
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KABUL – Afghanistan is plunging into a deepening humanitarian crisis as U.S. aid cuts under President Donald Trump have crippled medical services and food assistance programs, leaving millions without access to basic care or enough to eat. The abrupt halt in funding—once the backbone of the country’s emergency response—has shuttered hundreds of hospitals, forced doctors and nurses out of work, and led to the worst surge in child malnutrition ever recorded in the country.
In the remote village of Hatam Khail, just an hour outside Kabul, Muhammad Usman and his family of 10 have been surviving on scraps since U.S.-funded food distributions stopped arriving last year. “Only one of my sons has work,” he said, standing beside his crumbling mud house. “Our government has provided nothing. And now, no other country is helping anymore.”
Until early 2024, the United States was the single largest donor to Afghanistan, covering over 40 percent of the country’s humanitarian needs. After returning to the White House, Trump swiftly froze all U.S. foreign assistance to Afghanistan, describing it as “not aligned with American interests.” The decision eliminated roughly $500 million in projects and dissolved the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), gutting support for critical aid programs ranging from hospitals to food distributions.
The fallout has been immediate and devastating. According to the World Health Organization, over 420 health facilities suspended or ceased operations in the first half of 2025 alone, affecting more than three million people. In public hospitals around the country, supplies of basic drugs like antibiotics, painkillers, and cancer medications have run dry. Beds are bloodied and filthy, and desperate families are forced to pay for medicine that was once free—if they can find it.
Doctors across provinces such as Ghazni and Logar report they have been forced to choose which patients receive oxygen due to chronic shortages. In some rural areas, where mobile clinics once brought care to isolated communities, women and children now go without any access to healthcare. Folk remedies and prayers are replacing professional medicine.
“The old reliance on bonesetters is making a comeback,” said one hospital director in Logar. “People are returning to medieval alternatives.”
The World Food Program, which relied on the U.S. for a third of its funding in Afghanistan, announced this week it can now feed only 1 million of the 10 million Afghans in urgent need. “2025 saw the highest surge in acute malnutrition ever recorded in Afghanistan,” said John Aylieff, WFP’s country director. “Parents are rushing starving children to clinics, only to find the doors closed due to funding cuts.”
The Taliban, who dismissed foreign aid as unnecessary when they regained control in 2021, now face mounting internal pressure. The regime, still sanctioned and unrecognized internationally, has been unable to make up the massive funding shortfall. While some Afghan officials claim they are restoring services with alternative donors, doctors say the situation continues to deteriorate.
Even humanitarian workers themselves have been caught in the collapse. A 35-year-old female adviser for a USAID-funded rural health initiative said she was laid off via WhatsApp while returning from a site visit in February. “Even now, hospitals call me asking for advice,” she said. “But there’s nothing I can do. They’re badly struggling.”
As hunger spreads and healthcare disappears, Afghanistan stands on the brink of a man-made disaster—one that aid groups say could have been prevented. With no clear plan to replace the lost aid and little international momentum to reverse course, the Afghan people now face the consequences alone.
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