The food agencies of the United Nations (UN) warned this Thursday (31) of the possible worsening of hunger in the next seven months in many parts of the world, with Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti being the most worrying.
In a biannual report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said that conflicts and armed violence are responsible for most of the acute food insecurity in the regions analyzed.
Extreme weather is a factor in other regions, while economic inequality and high debt levels in many developing countries hamper governments’ ability to respond.
Urgent humanitarian action is needed to prevent hunger and death in the Gaza Strip, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali, called for FAO and WFP, according to the French agency AFP.
“In the absence of immediate humanitarian efforts and concerted international action to remedy the serious difficulties of access and to reduce conflict and insecurity, hunger and loss of human life could worsen” in these regions, they warned.
Nigeria, Chad, Yemen, Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Syria and Lebanon are also in a very worrying situation.
The joint report, based on investigations by experts from the two Rome-based UN agencies, covers the period from November 2024 to May 2025.
The report focuses on “the most serious situations” and does not represent “all countries/territories that record high levels of acute food insecurity,” the authors said.
The year 2024 is the second consecutive year of a decrease in humanitarian aid funding. Twelve food security plans faced funding shortfalls of more than 75% in countries including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria and Myanmar.
Levels of food insecurity are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with the latter corresponding to a “catastrophe” situation.
In the Gaza Strip, the recent upsurge in hostilities between Palestinians and Israelis raises fears that the catastrophic scenario of famine could become a reality, according to the two agencies.
By mid-October, 1.9 million people, corresponding to 91% of Gaza’s population, were displaced.
In Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict will continue to face hunger.
In South Sudan, the number of people facing hunger and death is expected to have doubled between April and July 2024, compared to the same period in 2023.
These numbers could worsen from May 2025, with the period that follows and precedes two harvests.
According to FAO and WFP, more than 1 million people were affected by severe flooding in October in South Sudan, a chronically unstable country wracked by violence and economic stagnation.
Armed violence in Haiti, combined with a persistent economic crisis and hurricanes, is likely to worsen already critical hunger levels.
The escalation of the conflict in Mali, where the UN withdrew the peacekeeping mission in 2023, risks worsening already critical levels, with armed groups imposing roadblocks and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The direct and indirect effects of conflicts on food insecurity are considerable, according to the report’s authors, and go far beyond the destruction of livestock and crops.
Conflicts force people to flee their homes, “disrupting livelihoods and incomes, limiting access to markets and leading to price fluctuations and irregular food production and consumption.”
In some regions, extreme weather conditions, caused by the possible reappearance this winter of La Niña, a natural climate phenomenon that can trigger intense rains or worsen droughts and heat waves, could exacerbate food crises, according to FAO and the PAM.
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