‘I Hope Angels Bring Them Home’: Afghan Mother Mourns Three Sons Lost to Hunger
Gusts of wind blew dust off the ground as Ghulam Mohiddin and his wife, Nazo, walked to the small graveyard where all their children are buried. They showed the three tiny graves: one-year-old Rahmat, seven-month-old Koatan, and three-month-old Faisal Ahmad. All three died of malnutrition.
“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 your arms are empty,” said Nazo. Ghulam added that watching his children cry from hunger felt like his own body was being cut in half.
Their stories are not recorded anywhere, but they reflect the silent wave of child deaths engulfing Afghanistan.
The UN’s World Food Programme warns that more than three million Afghan children are now at risk of severe malnutrition. Food assistance, once the last safety net for the poorest families, has been slashed after the United States and other major donors cut aid.
At the same time, a severe drought has crippled agriculture, while the forced return of over two million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan has removed vital remittances that many families relied on.
In Sheidaee, the signs of hunger are everywhere. Nearly two-thirds of the graves in the settlement’s cemetery belong to children.
In the homes, parents cradle toddlers who cannot stand because their bodies are too weak. One-year-old Rafiullah cannot even hold himself upright. His mother soaks dry bread in tea to feed him, but it is not enough.
Sometimes, in despair, she gives him strips of medicine meant for adults, sedatives, and blood pressure tablets, just to make him sleep through the hunger.
Doctors warn that such practices can irreparably damage a child’s organs or even kill them, but with no money and no food, parents are left with impossible choices.
Meanwhile, the Taliban government blames sanctions and foreign aid cuts, while critics point to their bans on women working with NGOs, restrictions on rights, and refusal to reform, which have further obstructed the delivery of life-saving assistance.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to life, survival, and development, the right to health, and the right to an adequate standard of living. These rights are being denied daily to millions of Afghan children. The graves of Rahmat, Koatan, and Faisal Ahmad stand as stark reminders that the world is failing them.
