Afghanistan's Health Crisis Deepens In The Aftermath Of USAID Cuts

LITAF, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 26: The sub-health center of Litaf, previously run by the French NGO Première Urgence Internationale, sits empty since its closure due to US funding cuts, which has left many of the approximatively 9,000 inhabitants of nearby villages cut off from health services, on August 26, 2025, in Andar district of Ghazni province, Afghanistan. According to Gulam Faruq, 60, the deputy-head of the local health council, the closure has led to women giving birth at home instead of the clinic, malnourished children failing to receive therapeutic food, and women and children not getting vaccinated. "We don't know what we will do during the winter--at least, when the roads were blocked by snow, we could get to this clinic walking carrying pregnant women on our backs," he said. According to August data from the World Health Organization, 422 health facilities have been suspended or closed in Afghanistan since U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order to terminate USAID funding in February. Thirty of the closures have taken place in the Ghazni region, affecting more than 226,000 people. The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated in the wake of cuts by the US and other foreign aid sources, as vulnerable populations are left without access to life-saving medical care, including maternal and child health services. A recent study in the The Lancet medical journal has forecast that USAID funding cuts could result in the preventable deaths of more than 14 million people worldwide by 2030, including 4.5 million children under the age of five. (Photo by Elise Blanchard/Getty Images)