Global hunger hit a new high last year with the outlook for 2025 “bleak,” according to a United Nations-backed report.
Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition rose for a sixth consecutive year in 2024, affecting more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories, the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GFRC), released on Friday, warned.
Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks were identified as the main drivers.
The report, which provides its analysis through a collaborative effort with United Nations agencies, states that the rise in hunger levels of 5 percent over 2023 was the sixth in a row.
Overall, 22.6 percent of populations in the worst-hit regions experienced crisis-level hunger or worse.
Conflict was the leading cause of hunger, affecting nearly 140 million people across 20 countries in 2024, including areas facing “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity in Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. Sudan has confirmed famine conditions.
Economic shocks, such as inflation and currency devaluation, helped push 59.4 million people into food crises in 15 countries, including Syria and Yemen.
Extreme weather, particularly El Nino-induced droughts and floods, shunted 18 countries into crisis, affecting more than 96 million people, especially in Southern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Horn of Africa.
‘Empty stomachs, empty hands, turned backs’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report an “unflinching indictment of a world dangerously off course”.
“From Gaza and Sudan, to Yemen and Mali, catastrophic hunger driven by conflict and other factors is hitting record highs, pushing households to the edge of starvation,” Guterres said.
“This is more than a failure of systems – it is a failure of humanity. Hunger in the 21st century is indefensible. We cannot respond to empty stomachs with empty hands and turned backs,” he added.
Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen were among the countries with both the highest numbers of people and the highest share of their populations facing acute food insecurity.
The report found that “the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity almost tripled” in 2024.
Moreover, 26 countries with high acute food crises were also detected as having a nutrition crisis.
Middle East and North Africa hardest hit
Sudan, Yemen, Mali and Palestine faced the “most severe nutrition crises” last year.
In July 2024, famine was confirmed in the ZamZam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur. It was later identified in four more areas of the country from October to November and “another five [areas] from December 2024 to May 2025”.
In Palestine, while famine was projected in March 2024, it was averted due to a scale-up of humanitarian aid. However, as the war in Gaza continues and the Israeli blockade on aid remains, the report found that “acute food insecurity, malnutrition, and mortality” are likely to pass famine thresholds by September.
Food insecurity eased in 15 countries, including Ukraine, Kenya and Guatemala, last year due to scaled-up humanitarian aid, improved harvests, easing inflation and a decline in conflict.
However, the report warned that the outlook is bleak as major donor countries have substantially reduced humanitarian funding.
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