Following the announcement of widespread funding cuts from traditional donors, such as the United States (US) and European countries, in 2025, more than 400 healthcare facilities were forced to close across Afghanistan.* This put additional pressure on an already fragile healthcare system, and the demand for services at MSF facilities rose sharply, exceeding our capacity, particularly for paediatric and maternal care. Due to the absence of primary healthcare at a local level, people delayed seeking assistance, which often meant they had developed complications by the time they reached hospitals. Meanwhile, poor vaccine coverage in rural areas led to a surge in measles outbreaks among children.

In August, a magnitude 6 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, with Kunar province at the epicentre, killing over 2,000 people and injuring thousands more.** Many people lost their homes and their livelihoods in the disaster. In response, MSF teams worked in displacement camps, providing general outpatient consultations, wound dressing, routine vaccinations, women’s health consultations, assistance with deliveries, and mental health support, as well as activities to prevent disease outbreaks, such as establishing water and sanitation services.  

The situation for women worsened in 2025, as ongoing restrictions continued to erase them from public and professional life. In November in Herat, female patients, caregivers, and staff were required to wear a burqa to enter all public health facilities, leading to an almost immediate reduction in patient numbers at Herat regional hospital. The enforcement of the mahram policy, which requires women to travel with a male guardian, was strengthened during the year, exacerbating barriers women face in accessing healthcare. The years-long ban on education beyond grade six continued, increasing the risk of a long-term shortage of female healthcare professionals.

Balkh

MSF has been supporting Abu Ali Sina regional and teaching hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province since August 2023, working alongside the Ministry of Public Health to reduce paediatric and neonatal deaths in northern Afghanistan. Our teams work in the paediatric emergency room, and in the neonatology and paediatric intensive care units. We also run a triage system to prioritise critically ill children, and managed a 24-bed isolation unit for measles patients with the Ministry of Public Health until the end of October. In November, we extended our work to the general paediatric ward.  

Bamyan

Since December 2022, MSF has been running a community healthcare programme in Bamyan province for underserved villages, particularly in Saighan, Shibar, and Yakawlang districts. We constructed eight health facilities in remote districts between 2022 and 2023, located more than 10 kilometres – or over two hours on foot – from the nearest health centre. In these health facilities, MSF-supported health staff provide mother and child health services, including antenatal and postnatal care, obstetric and gynaecological consultations, family planning, assistance in uncomplicated deliveries, vaccination, nutrition screening, and general adult outpatient care. Maternal referrals are sent to the MSF-supported maternity in the provincial hospital, and referrals for specialist care are provided when needed.

Helmand

MSF has been working alongside the Ministry of Public Health at Boost provincial hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, since 2009. In 2025, MSF worked in nearly every department of the hospital, including the emergency room, paediatrics, neonatology, maternity, surgical services, internal medicine, and isolation wards.  

Overcrowding remains a critical challenge in the paediatric department, including the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre, and in the maternity department, which assisted an average of 90 deliveries per day. In 2025, our team admitted double the paediatric patients, and assisted in double the deliveries, compared with 2020.

Due to the high volume of patients, we started handing over some of our other activities in Boost hospital to the Ministry of Public Health to refocus our resources and efforts on the departments for maternal and child health.  

Herat

MSF has collaborated with the Ministry of Public Health at Herat regional hospital since 2018 to improve paediatric healthcare. We manage the paediatric triage, the emergency room, the inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding centres, and the intensive and intermediate care units, as well as a dedicated measles isolation ward. In 2025, we treated many children with measles, the majority of whom were under 12 months old. We also recorded an increase in consultations in the paediatric emergency room compared with 2024.  

Kandahar

Since 2016, MSF has been treating patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in Kandahar province, and supporting the detection and treatment of drug-sensitive TB in other facilities across southern Afghanistan.  

To address the high burden of malnutrition, we also run an inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding centre, providing treatment for severe acute malnutrition alongside routine vaccinations for children under five.

Khost

In Khost, our maternity hospital offers comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care, serving as a referral centre for women suffering obstetric complications, including prolonged labour and ante- and postpartum haemorrhage, across the province. At the hospital, our package of care includes services in pre-delivery rooms, delivery rooms, a neonatal intensive care unit, mothers’ intensive care unit, and operating theatre. We are also promoting skin-to-skin mother and child contact, which improves the health of premature babies and their mothers alike.

We also offer financial support and training for staff in eight MSF-supported health centres in the province.

Kunduz

In 2025, Kunduz trauma centre continued to deliver surgical and rehabilitative care – including physiotherapy – for patients with traumatic injuries from Kunduz and the surrounding provinces. We also run a microbiology laboratory and an antimicrobial stewardship programme to monitor and treat infections, seeking to reduce the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance against first-line treatments in the community.  

In October, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the US airstrikes which resulted in the death of 42 people and destroyed the original centre. We rebuilt the facility in a different site and reopened it in 2021.

Kunar

Following the earthquake in August, MSF sent medical supplies to affected hospitals, and rapidly sent teams to assess needs in Jalalabad and the surrounding districts. In mid-September, we opened a general healthcare clinic in Patan camp, offering outpatient consultations, vaccinations, ante- and postnatal care, health promotion, and mental health support. In October, we started running these services in Ari Gamba camp. At the end of the year, we handed both clinics over to the Afghan Red Crescent Society and the Ministry of Public Health. 

* World Health Organization and Health Cluster: https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-suspendedclosed-health-facilities-due-us-government-work-stop-ban-update-31-august-2025 

** World Health Organization and Health Cluster: https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-suspendedclosed-health-facilities-due-us-government-work-stop-ban-update-31-august-2025