Nine in 10 families in Afghanistan are going hungry or falling into debt as millions of new returnees stretch resources in poverty-stricken areas in the east and north, according to the United Nations.

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan – battered by aid cuts , sanctions and repeated natural disasters, including a deadly quake in August – is struggling to absorb 4.5 million people who have returned since 2023. About 1.5 million were forced back this year from Pakistan and Iran, which have intensified efforts to expel Afghan refugees.

A UN Development Programme (UNDP) report released on Wednesday said returning Afghans are reeling from severe economic insecurity. More than half of returnee households are skipping medical care to afford food while more than 90 percent have taken on debt,

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