Africa: Another Year, Another Rise in Food Insecurity - Including Famine

In July 2024, famine was found in Sudan's Zamzam IDP camp. The alert soon spread to other camps in Darfur and the Western Nuba Mountains. Since December, famine has been confirmed in five additional areas. Seventeen more areas are at risk of famine. This is the first famine declared globally since 2017.

The ongoing war between rival militaries has displaced 13 million Sudanese. Over 30.4 million people need urgent humanitarian aid, according to UN estimates.

Residents of the Zamzam camp face extreme violence and displacement again. Sudan is now one of the worst food insecurity crises in history. The number of people experiencing acute food insecurity has risen for six years straight.

According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, over 295.3 million people face acute food insecurity across 53 countries. This represents 22.6 percent of the analyzed population.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called this report a "failure of humanity." It identified 36 countries with prolonged food crises affecting their populations since 2016. The number facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity doubled from 2023 to 2024.

The report emphasized that recurring emergencies show that current approaches are ineffective. For the first time, it included data on nutrition, revealing that 37.7 million children experienced acute malnutrition in 26 countries.

This level of global food insecurity results from multiple interconnected factors. No region is immune; crises overlap and hinder recovery efforts.

Increased conflict drives food insecurity in several regions, including Sudan and Gaza Strip. In Gaza, all inhabitants faced acute food shortages in 2024 due to ongoing aid blockages since March.

Climate change also contributes to food shortages through altered weather patterns affecting agriculture. Low rainfall worsened conditions in Sudan while flooding impacted crops in Namibia.

Economic shocks like inflation further exacerbate these crises, especially in Syria where instability increases vulnerability to economic issues. The Secretary-General stated that this situation reflects a failure beyond systems; it is a failure of humanity itself.

Recent funding shortages threaten efforts to address food insecurity effectively. Humanitarian initiatives may see funding drop by up to 45 percent.

Cindy McCain from the World Food Programme (WFP) noted these cuts affect all aspects of aid distribution, including transport costs for remote areas. She expressed uncertainty about maintaining air support for aid delivery under current conditions.

The report stresses finding cost-efficient strategies for long-term community resilience and capacity development as essential steps forward. It calls for better alignment between humanitarian and development investments to tackle systemic failures rather than treating them as seasonal shocks.

In September 2024, the UN Pact for the Future addressed food insecurity challenges by promoting resilient and sustainable systems. The FAO advocates investing more in sustainable agriculture as a cost-effective solution compared to direct assistance.

Rein Paulsen from FAO highlighted agriculture's potential as an underused tool against food insecurity: "Agriculture can be the answer."

In his video message about the report, Secretary-General Guterres emphasized that hunger today is indefensible: "We cannot respond to empty stomachs with empty hands."