Afghanistan humanitarian crisis has had a disproportionate impact on the disabled, UN warns

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan says that people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the current humanitarian crisis in the country.

“Persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the current humanitarian crisis. In 2023, 2.4 million people are living with disabilities in Afghanistan.” OCHA wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

“Aid agencies plan to assist two million of these. To support people with disabilities, urgent funding is required,” the organization added.

OCHA estimates that “28 million individuals in Afghanistan require urgent humanitarian assistance”. The office has proposed a funding request of US$4.6 billion to address the needs of these individuals throughout the current year.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. The United Nations has said that Afghanistan is facing its “worst humanitarian crisis since the 1990s”. The organization recently warned in a tweet that “The price of doing nothing has never been higher.”