Wars, droughts and aid cuts will exacerbate famine in 2026

Conflict, drought and reduced humanitarian aid will keep global hunger at a critical high in 2026, with food insecurity expected to worsen in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, according to the Global Food Crises Report 2026, Reuters reported.

The 10th edition of the report, prepared by a coalition of development and humanitarian organizations, said that the level of acute hunger has doubled in the past decade. Last year, for the first time in the history of the report, two famines were officially declared: in Gaza and Sudan.

In total, 266 million people in 47 countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, while 1.4 million people were in catastrophic conditions in parts of Haiti, Mali, Gaza, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.

In 2025 alone, 35.5 million children worldwide suffered from acute malnutrition, of which nearly 10 million were severely malnourished.

For the current year, the report says the crisis level remains critical, with only Haiti likely to move out of the worst, catastrophic category, thanks to some improvements in security and increased humanitarian assistance.

“We are no longer seeing just temporary shocks. These are now long-term, systemic shocks,” said Alvaro Lario, head of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, who is involved in the preparation of the report.

The main takeaway, he said, is that food insecurity is no longer an isolated issue, but is putting pressure on global stability.

The US-Israeli war against Iran has added to the concerns. Lario warned that prolonged disruptions to energy and fertilizer trade could spill over into global food markets and exacerbate hunger in import-dependent countries already in crisis.

“Even if the conflict in the Middle East were to end now, we know that food price shocks and inflation will manifest themselves over the next six months,” he said.

Even before the additional pressure from this war, West Africa and the Sahel region are likely to remain heavily affected by conflict and persistent inflation, particularly in Nigeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Nigeria, in particular, is projected to experience one of the largest increases in food insecurity in 2026, with an additional 4.1 million people facing acute hunger.

In East Africa, poor rainy seasons are expected to exacerbate crises in Somalia and Kenya, where drought, instability, high food prices and reduced humanitarian assistance are worsening the situation.

The report also warns that funding for humanitarian and development programmes in the food sector fell sharply in 2025 and is likely to fall further.

Humanitarian funding for food is estimated to have fallen by around 39% last year compared to 2024, while development assistance has fallen by at least 15%.

Tags: food security