International media reports say extreme hunger and collapsing healthcare are forcing Afghan families into desperate measures…reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian crisis is reportedly forcing desperate families to sell their children, often young daughters, in order to survive as poverty, hunger and collapsing healthcare systems deepen across the country, according to multiple international media reports.
Reports by broadcasters including the BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and ITV News have highlighted growing cases of Afghan parents selling children to pay for food, medical treatment or debt, describing the trend as part of a wider humanitarian catastrophe rather than isolated incidents.
According to the reports, nearly three quarters of Afghans are now unable to meet even their most basic daily needs, while millions face severe food insecurity amid rising unemployment, drought and shrinking international aid.
A recent BBC report from Afghanistan’s Ghor province documented several families who said extreme hunger and joblessness had left them with no option but to sell their daughters.
One father, identified as Saeed Ahmad, told the broadcaster he agreed to sell his five year old daughter, Shaiqa, to pay for surgery to treat a liver cyst and appendicitis. Under the agreement, the child would remain with the family until her treatment was completed.
The report said the surgery was successful and funded through the 200,000 Afghani payment, equivalent to less than USD 3,200, received from the buyer.
The BBC report also noted that emergency level hunger is affecting nearly five million people in Afghanistan, while child deaths linked to malnutrition and collapsing health services are increasing.
Families interviewed by international media described child sales as a desperate survival measure aimed at preventing starvation among other family members.
Another father interviewed by the BBC said he was willing to sell his seven year old twin daughters, Roqia and Rohila, because of crushing debt and extreme poverty.
Earlier reports have documented similar cases across Afghanistan. A 2022 Voice of America programme titled “In Afghanistan, Selling One Child to Save Another” highlighted how drought hit families in rural areas sold one child in an attempt to keep the rest of the family alive.
Britain’s ITV News also reported in 2022 that starving families were attempting to sell children in local markets, while hospitals struggled with shortages of food and medicine for severely malnourished babies.
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that internally displaced families in rural Afghanistan were increasingly becoming trapped in child selling networks often facilitated by brokers or relatives.
In another widely reported case, Australia’s SBS News detailed how an Afghan mother sold one of her newborn twins to a childless couple to save the rest of her family from starvation, a story that became symbolic of the country’s deepening humanitarian collapse.
According to United Nations estimates and data cited by humanitarian organisations, more than 80 per cent of Afghan households are currently in debt, while between 23 million and 30 million people are facing acute food insecurity.
Analysts and aid agencies say the crisis has worsened significantly since the return of the Taliban to power and the subsequent reduction in international aid flows that once supported large parts of the country’s economy and healthcare system.
A recent UN report estimated that around 28 million people in Afghanistan were living in poverty in 2025, with worsening drought, mass population displacement and declining foreign assistance intensifying the crisis.
Although Afghanistan recorded a second consecutive year of economic growth, the UN noted that real GDP growth slowed to 1.9 per cent in 2025, while population growth reached 6.5 per cent, resulting in a continued decline in income per capita and living standards across the country.
