Tag: acute malnutrition

New Global Report on Food Crises, 2026

April 26, 2026

The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), jointly published on April 24 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Global Network Against Food Crises, estimates that some 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished across 23 nutrition crisis countries.  “This tenth edition… reveals an alarming reality: hunger is increasingly being used as a weapon of war.”  

“Ending hunger is a test of our shared humanity. It is a test we cannot fail.” the U.N. Secretary-General wrote in the Foreword.

In 2025, approximately 266 million people across 47 countries and territories faced crises or acute food insecurity, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance.  The report discusses rates of malnutrition based on medical clinic screening in Gaza and western Sudan, including El Fasher and Kadugli.   Much of the rest of the Sudan is also seen as at risk.

The Global Network Against Food Crises itself is described as an alliance including the UN, EU, Germany’s BMZ, UK FCDO, Ireland, g7+, and other governmental/non-governmental agencies.

Comparing reports over the years, the trajectory from 2020 to 2025 is stark.  In 2020, approximately 155 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity) across 55 countries, already a sharp rise from 105 million in 2016.  By 2025, that figure stood at 266 million across 47 countries, though the 2026 report explicitly cautions that the apparent drop from the 2023 peak of 282 million partly reflects reduced country coverage rather than genuine improvement. The share of the analyzed population in acute food insecurity nearly doubled from about 11 percent in 2016 to nearly 23 percent in 2025, and had already crossed 21 percent by 2020.

In 2019 and 2020, David Beasley, as the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), highlighted the risk of multiple concurrent famines, while the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.  Beasley delivered the Nobel lecture where he called for action to prevent widespread starvation.    In 2020, the primary crisis concentration was already in a familiar set of countries, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, the Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, which the 2026 report notes have been among the ten largest food crises for most of the decade.

Myanmar [Burma] and South Sudan were newly classified as very severe nutrition crises in 2026, categories they did not hold in the earlier period.

Meanwhile, some populations showed meaningful improvement. Bangladesh saw a significant 32 percent decrease in acutely food-insecure people between 2024 and 2025, and Syria reduced its share from 39 to 29 percent of the population — though both remained at alarming absolute levels.

The report covers various causes of malnutrition, including war and climate. Weather extremes had grown enormously as a driver — from 15 countries affecting 15.7 million people in 2020 to 16 countries affecting 87.5 million people in 2025, a roughly five-fold increase in affected population. The 2023–2024 El Niño, described as one of the strongest on record, drove much of this, devastating Southern Africa in particular.

The report and its annexes reviewed methods.  For instance, WFP conducted 800,000 survey interviews in 2025, a 30 percent reduction from 1.1 million the prior year. FAO’s Data in Emergencies surveys fell 31 percent, from about 170,000 to 118,000 interviews.  An ongoing Acute Food Insecurity Trends Study was specifically designed to correct for temporal, methodological, population, and spatial omission biases that make year-to-year comparisons unreliable. This work was not yet in place for the 2020 edition. Additionally, the 2026 report notes specific methodology changes in individual countries — for instance, Zimbabwe’s IPC methodology changed between periods, and Uganda shifted from FEWS NET to IPC classification, adding 3.3 million people to Phase 3 counts simply through the methodological switch.

Access the report:

https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/86067cbb-9396-4e7d-8d19-e60ad00d2f73/content

Technical notes:  https://www.fightfoodcrises.net/sites/default/files/resource/file/2026_GRFC_APP_TECHNOTES.pdf

https://www.fightfoodcrises.net/global-report-food-crises

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/2026-joint-analysis-global-report-food-crises

Past reports:

https://www.fightfoodcrises.net/knowledge-hub/search?f%5B0%5D=series%3A39

HUNGER HOTSPOTS ACROSS THE GLOBE

This is a view of the most urgent hunger hotspots around the world. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) used by the United Nations and International Aid Agencies consists of five levels of severity for food insecurity as follows:
1. Minimal – Acceptable
2. Stressed – Alert
3. Crisis – Serious
4. Emergency – Critical
5. Catastrophe – Famine

https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/ipc-overview-and-classification-system/en/

For the following countries, the operative factor was the prevalence (current rate among children) of Acute Malnutrition (also known as wasting) from 2021 assessments.

AFGHANISTAN
Fourteen (14) million people in Afghanistan are facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year. At least 1 million of these children are at risk of dying due to severe acute malnutrition without immediate treatment.
A November 2021 UN survey mission  to Kandahar Province to assess the current capacity and needs found increases in number of cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition were also reported. (WFP)

ETHIOPIA
This severe crisis results from the combined effects of civil war, limited humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihoods, and collapsed markets.
In May 2021, it was reported that 5.5 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity and 3.1 million people were in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) while 2.1 million people were in an Emergency (IPC Phase 4).

A food security analysis update conducted in Tigray and the neighboring zones of Amhara and Afar concludes that over 350,000 people were in ‘catastrophe’, according to Integrated Phase Classification or IPC 5 (famine) levels between May and June 2021. Since November 2021, approximately 100,000 people have fled their homes in Tigray, including more than 48,000 who headed westwards and crossed the border into eastern Sudan. Thousands are at risk of hunger, and peace is vital to stop the situation in Tigray from worsening.

YEMEN
The food security situation in Yemen significantly deteriorated during 2020 and has reached crisis levels. Over 2.25 million children under five years old have suffered from acute malnutrition in 2021. The reasons include the ongoing civil conflict, very poor access to health services and poor sanitation in most areas.

SOMALIA
The key drivers of acute food insecurity in Somalia include the combined effects of poor rainfall, as well as flooding and war. Almost 3.5 million people across Somalia faced food gaps or loss of livelihood assets indicative of Crisis (IPC Phase 3) through the end of the year. Moreover, it is estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five are likely to be acutely malnourished, including nearly 213,400 who are likely to be severely malnourished. Desert Locust will continue to pose a serious risk to both pasture availability and crop production across Somalia.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
During a Food Insecurity analysis of Central African Republic conducted in September 2021, 67 of the country’s 71 sub-prefectures were assessed The Assessment projected that from the period of September 2021 to March 2022, nine sub-prefectures are to be classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 59 in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). Of the 4.9 million people living in these sub-prefectures, 2.1 million (43%) will experience high levels of acute food insecurity through March 2022, including around 620,000 people in Emergency levels (IPC Phase 4).

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. More than five million people have been displaced, including three million children. Most of these displaced families have sheltered in local communities that are only just managing to meet their own needs. Other displaced persons live in informal camps where living conditions are even harsher.

According to the latest Acute Malnutrition analysis, nearly 900,000 children under five and more than 400,000 pregnant or lactating women are likely to be acutely malnourished through August 2022 in the 70 health zones assessed out of a total of 519 health zones. These estimates include more than 200,000 severely malnourished children requiring urgent care.

KENYA
An estimated 653,000 children and 96,500 pregnant and lactating women require treatment for acute malnutrition. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting all counties in the country, the caseload among children aged 6 to 59 months requires urgent attention. The nutrition situation has remained similar across arid counties compared to the August 2020 analysis.

ANGOLA
An analysis of Acute Malnutrition in 10 municipalities in Southern Angola has revealed that around 114,000 children under the age of five are suffering or are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition in the next 12 months and therefore require treatment

MADAGASCAR
Over 500,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished through April 2022, of which over 110,000 are likely severely malnourished and require urgent life-saving treatment. Food insecurity is a major contributing factor to the nutrition situation, followed by poor access to sanitation facilities and improved drinking water sources due to drought.

Conditions are likely to continue deteriorating in the coming months. Nearly 1.6 million people—approximately 60 percent of southern Madagascar’s population—will likely require humanitarian assistance from June 2021 to May 2022.

CHAD
Over 500,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished through April 2022, of which over 110,000 are likely  to be severely malnourished and require urgent life-saving treatment. Food insecurity is a major contributing factor to the nutrition situation, followed by poor access to sanitation facilities and improved drinking water sources due to drought.