Overview
- The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises, released Friday, counts 266 million people in 47 countries facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025.
- Famine was confirmed in parts of Gaza and Sudan in 2025, with 1.4 million people in catastrophic IPC Phase 5 conditions across six contexts.
- Conflict drove most of the crisis, affecting roughly 147 million people in 19 countries, with weather and economic shocks adding deep stress.
- The Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb disruptions are raising fuel and fertiliser costs and forcing aid reroutes that add weeks to deliveries such as India to Port Sudan.
- The World Food Programme warns prolonged disruption could push up to 45 million more people into acute hunger, as funding falls back to 2016–2017 levels and 35.5 million children suffer acute malnutrition.