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Food prices have surged in some of the most food-insecure countries in the Middle East and wider region due to the ongoing conflict, threatening to push the most vulnerable families further into hunger as Eid approaches.

The conflict in the Middle East and wider region is obstructing key delivery routes for humanitarian supplies, delaying lifesaving medical shipments for at least 410,000 children in three countries, said Save the Children, warning the global impact will only grow.

At least 400 people have been killed and 250 others injured, following an attack at a hospital facility in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, according to the country's defacto authorities. 

About 134,000 people have been affected by disruptions to Save the Children’s work, including health, nutrition, child protection and education programmes

The earthquake in eastern Afghanistan on 31 August last year was one of the deadliest to ever hit the country, killing more than 2,000 people and destroying or damaging more than 8,000 homes, forcing children and families into tents.

Analysis of new hunger data found that just over 9 million children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger before March 2026.  

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday, with the epicentre in Samangan province, an hour from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Severe shaking was also felt in the capital, Kabul, with tremors reported as far away as Pakistan. The tremors caused panic and terror for children and their families, forcing them to run from their homes in provinces across northern Afghanistan where temperatures are dropping as winter sets in.

Children make up more than half of the about 2,100 confirmed deaths to date, according to new data from the UN. More than 500 girls and 650 boys lost their lives in the earthquakes, the first of which struck at night on 31 August, flattening homes in seconds

Pakiza*, 25, a midwife with four years of experience at Save the Children, travelled through blocked roads and rubble to get to the earthquake affected areas, where she was quickly asked by residents asked her to help a pregnant woman who was in active labour.

A rolling wave of aftershocks in eastern Afghanistan is terrifying children who have lost families and homes in the country’s deadliest earthquake in nearly 30 years with the death toll rising to over 2,200.