Tragic Toll of Hunger: Afghan Family Loses Three Sons to Malnutrition

Wed Oct 22 2025 08:16:26 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

In a heartbreaking account, an Afghan mother mourns the loss of her three young sons due to malnutrition, shedding light on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Ghulam Mohiddin and Nazo, an Afghan couple, have lost three of their young sons to malnutrition as they struggle to survive amidst the severe hunger crisis in Afghanistan. The dire situation affects millions of children, with many families lacking access to basic food supplies. As the World Food Programme warns of a rising tide of child malnutrition, calls for urgent international aid grow louder.

In the somber graveyard of Sheidaee, Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife Nazo stand vigil over the graves of their three precious sons, taken from them by the ravages of malnutrition. One-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan, and three-month-old Faisal Ahmad all succumbed to hunger—a fate all too common in their settlement near Herat, Afghanistan.

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, Nazo laments, a mother’s heartbreak echoed in her desperate wish for an impossible reunion with her little ones.

The heartbreaking reality is that their story is not an isolated case; it reflects a terrifying crisis sweeping across Afghanistan, where the United Nations estimates over three million children face severe malnutrition. This crisis grows more acute as international aid dwindles and the availability of food sources significantly decreases, pushing parents like Ghulam and Nazo to their breaking point.

Ghulam, who ekes out a minimal living breaking walnut shells, describes the haunting experience of watching his children cry due to hunger, a pain that sears through the system of a father who can do little to provide for them.

With no records of their children's deaths, these lost lives exemplify the silent disaster facing families throughout Afghanistan, worsened by political instability and a crippling drought affecting agricultural yields. The loss of foreign aid has pulled the rug out from under those already struggling.

In another part of Sheidaee, Hanifa Sayedi grapples with her own struggle to feed her one-year-old son, Rafiullah. Despite efforts to seek help, there are constant reminders of the dire state of the healthcare and food systems around them. With starvation looming larger, and assistance shrinking, the futures of countless children hang in the balance.

As the winter months approach, the urgency for international intervention grows, with organizations like the World Food Programme highlighting the dire impacts of a funding shortfall that threatens to leave the most vulnerable without vital support.

In Afghanistan, the price of indifference is now being paid in the silence of graveyards filled with the youngest victims of a hunger crisis that must not be allowed to slip into obscurity.

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