hunger

A protest by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party has intensified after activist Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly moved to a hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was splashed with ink after beginning a fast in solidarity.

Renewed conflict and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have slowed fertiliser shipments, worsening hunger in Sudan.

Sudan risks facing a deepening hunger crisis due to ongoing conflict, aid ⁠funding cuts, and rising agricultural costs driven by the global disruption caused by the Iran war, a senior World Food Programme (WFP) official has said.

“It’s a massive crisis, both in terms of numbers, but also due to the gravity,” Carl Skau, the WFP’s acting executive director, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Skau said that more than 100,000 people were still facing famine-like conditions, placing them in the highest level of the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). “With these kinds of numbers in IPC 5 starvation, it is extremely, extremely serious,” he said.

Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with around five million people facing emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, even after an intensive ‌aid response helped reduce the number of people in famine-like conditions, Skau said.

Nearly 19.5 million people across Sudan face high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the ⁠IPC. Skau said that recent fighting around el-Obeid in North Kordofan had raised fears the ⁠city could suffer a fate similar to el-Fasher in Darfur, where conflict and siege conditions trapped civilians and hindered aid deliveries, and where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out mass killings and gang rapes after they took control of the city in the course of their three-year conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

In recent days, however, violence has eased somewhat around el-Obeid, raising hopes that aid deliveries can be expanded from 100,000 to 250,000 in the area.

The WFP is ⁠also increasingly concerned about renewed fighting over the past week in Darfur, which has forced the closure of the Tine border crossing, a route from Chad ⁠into Darfur. This renewal of conflict threatens to reverse gains made after famine took hold in parts of the country, it said.

Throughout the country, the WFP has reduced the number of people ⁠it assists from five million a year ago to about 3.5 million, and reduced rations in many areas, including in Tawila in Darfur, as it faces a $646m funding gap after cuts from major donors, including the United States, European countries and Britain.

“We’re not heading in the ‌right direction here,” Skau said. “If anything, we are falling backwards.”

Skau also warned that soaring diesel prices and fertiliser shortages linked to conflict in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could further undermine ‌Sudan’s food security during the current planting season.

Sudan relies heavily on fertiliser imports from Gulf countries, while much of its agriculture depends on irrigation pumps, which may be too expensive for farmers to run.

The ⁠war between SAF and the RSF, now entering its fourth year, has displaced millions and devastated much of the country. Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of worsening food insecurity and limited humanitarian access.

Leah Norman said many of the beds would then lie empty all day with just a towel on them

A Scottish tourist has confirmed that holidaymakers sprinted to grab a sunbed after queuing for two hours at the pool gates. Leah Norman, 37, was on holiday at the Best Oasis Hotel in Salou, Spain, when she witnessed crowds of tourists flooding through the pool gates on July 4 in what she described as “Hunger Games style”.

The holidaymakers had been waiting since 8am until the doors opened at 10am. Leah, from Ayrshire, Scotland, said she spotted a “big queue” of sunbed-hoggers every morning, all desperate to secure a seat throughout her week-long stay.

She noted that beds with towels draped over them would remain unoccupied for the entire day, leaving families without any poolside shade for their young children.

Leah, from Ayrshire, Scotland, said: “Every morning there was a big queue inside hotel full of people waiting on the doors to open at pool area. The door was locked and would open at 10am.

“People would start queuing up from around 8am and when the doors opened at 10am, everyone would start running to grab sunbeds that were stacked up to place next to the pool, like the Hunger Games had just started.”

“Some families with young children were unable to get sunbeds or parasol shades for their babies as they would be taken. Some days, beds would lie empty all day with towels lying on them.”

Leah’s account echoes that of Glasgow tourist Chris, who witnessed comparable scenes in Salou back in June, filming over 40 tourists taking part in a ‘manic race’ for sunbeds after waiting an hour to secure one.

Watch tourists’ ‘manic race’ for sunbeds after hour-long queue

Having secured a spot with a towel, holidaymakers would then make their way inside for breakfast. Chris said: “It was a manic race and scramble for the sunbeds surrounding the pool at the hotel. I don’t judge but found it funny so had to film it.

“Some people just rolled out their bed, queued up, mad-dashed to secure the bed then they were seen going back to their hotel rooms or off for breakfast.

“It doesn’t leave room for those who don’t queue for an hour.”

Cuba has begun distributing donated powdered milk from Mexico and Uruguay as the island faces severe shortages and a deepening economic crisis. Officials say young children, pregnant women and paediatric facilities will be prioritised.

The next global food crisis is unfolding in a narrow stretch of water.

The United Nations warns that if fertilisers cannot pass through the Strait of Hormuz within just a few weeks, the world could face mass starvation.

It says the consequences could be severe if shipping disruptions linked to the Iran conflict drag on.

Food prices are already at a three-year high, while fertiliser costs critical for agriculture have rocketed.

Aid agencies fear a prolonged disruption could push tens of millions more people into hunger.

For vulnerable economies already struggling with debt and high import costs, the risks are growing fast.

FAO, WFP and Lebanon’s government say 1.24 million people are ‘expected to face food insecurity’ at crisis levels or worse.

More than 1.2 million people in Lebanon are expected to face acute hunger this year due to “conflict, displacement and economic pressures” amid the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a United Nations-backed report.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and Lebanon’s Ministry of Agriculture issued a joint statement on Wednesday, saying that 1.24 million people were “expected to face food insecurity” at crisis levels or worse between April and August.

The figure, contained in a report conducted by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed group that monitors hunger and malnutrition, marks a “significant deterioration” compared with the outlook before the war erupted on March 2, said the statement.

Prior to March, “an estimated 874,000 people, roughly 17 percent of the population, were experiencing acute food insecurity“, it said. But a “sharp escalation in violence” had “reversed recent food security gains in Lebanon and pushed the country back into crisis”.

“Families who were just managing to cope are now being pushed back into crisis as conflict, displacement and rising costs collide, making food increasingly unaffordable,” said Allison Oman Lawi, the WFP’s country director in Lebanon.

Nora Ourabah Haddad, the FAO representative in Lebanon, said, “Compounded shocks are undermining agricultural livelihoods and impacting food security, highlighting the urgent need for emergency agricultural assistance to support farmers and prevent further deterioration.”

A ceasefire that took effect on April 17 has reduced the intensity of the fighting between Israel and the armed group Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,500 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli forces are operating in south Lebanon near the border, where residents have been warned not to return, and both sides have been trading fire despite the truce.

“Acute food insecurity is likely to deepen without sustained and timely humanitarian and livelihood support,” the statement said.

Famine was confirmed in two places in 2025 – areas of the Gaza Strip and Sudan – the first such dual confirmation since formal famine reporting began, according to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2026.

The annual report, produced by a coalition of 18 humanitarian and development partners, found that acute food insecurity remained widespread in 2025.

Across 47 countries and territories experiencing food crises, 22.9 percent of their populations – or about 266 million people – experienced acute food insecurity last year, a marginal rise from 22.7 percent in 2024 but nearly double the 11.3 percent recorded in 2016.

The proportion of analysed populations facing acute hunger has now stayed above 20 percent every year since 2020. In absolute terms, the number of people affected has grown from 108 million in 2016 to 265.7 million in 2025, having peaked at 281.6 million in 2023.

The GRFC cautioned that the slightly lower headline figure compared with 2024 mainly reflects a reduction in the number of countries covered – from 53 to 47 – rather than any real decline in needs.

Famine, catastrophe and emergency

Famine – the most extreme classification under the hunger-monitoring Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system – was confirmed in parts of the Gaza Strip and Sudan in 2025. The risk of famine remained in other areas of Gaza, Sudan and South Sudan, and those projections extended into 2026.

According to the IPC, famine is when:

• At least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages.
• Acute malnutrition affects more than 30 percent of the population.
• The death rate due to starvation or hunger-related causes exceeds two deaths per 10,000 people per day.

Six countries and territories had populations facing “catastrophic conditions”, or Phase 5, the highest level in the IPC’s classification of food insecurity. They numbered 1.4 million people, a more-than ninefold increase since 2016.

The Gaza Strip was the worst affected, with 640,700 people facing famine conditions, equivalent to 32 percent of its population, the highest share recorded globally. Sudan followed with 637,200 people, or 1 percent of its population.

Four other countries recorded catastrophic food shortages among specific groups of people: South Sudan – 83,500 (1 percent of the population), Yemen – 41,200 (0.1 percent), Haiti – 8,400 (0.1 percent) and Mali – 2,600 (0.01 percent).

Additionally, more than 39 million people in 32 countries were in Phase 4, or emergency conditions, representing 3.8 percent of the population analysed, a marginal increase from 2024.

Conflict remains the main driver of hunger

Conflict and violence were the primary drivers of acute food insecurity in 19 countries where 147.4 million people were affected. They represented more than half of those facing acute hunger globally.

Weather extremes were the primary driver in 16 countries, affecting 87.5 million people, while economic shocks led in 12 countries, with 29.8 million people affected.

Against that backdrop, humanitarian and development financing for areas facing food crises declined in 2025, falling back to levels last seen in 2016-2017, the report said.

As for 2026, the report said that based on a partial picture as of March, severity levels remain critical in multiple contexts. It added that the escalation of conflict in the Middle East exposes food-crisis countries to direct and indirect risks of global agricultural and food market disruptions.

A generation of malnourished children

An estimated 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished in 2025 across 23 countries experiencing nutrition crises, including just under 10 million with severe acute malnutrition, the most life-threatening form.

A further 25.7 million children suffered from moderate acute malnutrition. About 9.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women were also acutely malnourished across 21 countries with available data.

Displacement is concentrated in food-crisis countries

The number of forcibly displaced people in the 46 countries covered fell slightly in 2025 to 85.1 million.

About 62.6 million of them were internally displaced across 34 countries, and 22.5 million were refugees and asylum seekers in 44 countries.

Without a sustained push to address the structural drivers of hunger, the world’s most fragile countries will continue to bear a disproportionate share of the global hunger burden well into 2026, the report concluded.

On the outskirts of Somalia’s southern port city, the land has become an open graveyard for cattle. Some are left where they fell, while others are buried in shallow graves after consecutive failed rainy seasons.

For many families here, pastoralists who rely on livestock for milk, meat, and income, animals were everything, but what was once a lifeline of food and income has now become a stark symbol of loss.

The impact is not just felt in Kismayo, but across the country, with 6.5 million people forced to skip meals and go hungry every day. Drought and rising costs only pushing the country deeper into crisis.

The humanitarian director at Save the Children, Francesca Sangiorgi, says the crisis is being driven by repeated climate shocks that are compounding over time. “We’re seeing multiple rainy seasons that have failed across the country,” she tells Al Jazeera, adding that even when rain arrives, it is often too uneven and too late to restore livelihoods that have already collapsed.

What’s the scale of the crisis?

The scale of Somalia’s hunger crisis is severe and rapidly worsening.

With a third of the population facing severe food insecurity (classified as IPC Phase 3 and above), many households are struggling to get enough food to meet their basic daily requirements (PDF) — and in some cases going without food altogether, leaving them more vulnerable to malnutrition and illnesses such as diarrhoea, measles, and other infections.

Of these, more than 2 million people are in the most critical conditions short of famine (IPC Phase 4 or emergency levels), where families are facing extreme shortages and are increasingly forced into displacement in search of basic needs, moving towards already overcrowded aid camps where resources are rapidly dwindling.

Children are among the most affected. According to the UN, an estimated 1.8 million children under five in Somalia are at risk of acute malnutrition, putting their survival in immediate danger.

Sangiorgi notes that the deterioration has been unfolding rapidly, its effects already evident.

“The situation of children across the country is extremely concerning,” she explains. “We’re seeing the spread of child illnesses across the country. Dropout rates are extremely high right now, and they continue to rise because of the drought. We want to make sure that children have a chance at life—access to the health and nutrition services they need, as well as education.”

According to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, more than 3.3 million people have been displaced, severely straining the already limited resources and basic services in these communities.

What does the crisis look like on the ground?

Near Kismayo, one of Somalia’s largest camps for displaced people has formed, sheltering families who have nothing to eat and have travelled from across Jubbaland.

One woman describes how her herd has fallen from 200 cattle to just four, ending her very livelihood.

Barwaqo Aden, a displaced Jamame resident in Lower Juba, arrived at the camp only recently, but her eight-month-old daughter is already in the local hospital with severe malnutrition due to the lack of resources.

Others arrive after exhausting journeys, fleeing areas controlled by the armed group al-Shabab. A displaced resident, Hodhan Mohamed, walked for days and crossed the River Juba by boat before reaching a crowded settlement, unsure what she would find. Like many new arrivals, she now waits for assistance that is limited and uncertain.

Sangiorgi explains that secondary displacement – when people who have already been forced from their homes are displaced again – is becoming increasingly frequent. “As services and commodities continue to shrink across the country, the prices of essential goods keep rising as well.”

More than 3.8 million Somalis are currently displaced, making up 22 percent of the population. Many have been uprooted multiple times, moving from one settlement to another as aid resources dwindle and access to support becomes more limited.

What’s driving the crisis?

At its core, the crisis is primarily driven by climate shocks.

Somalia has had three consecutive failed rainy seasons in recent years, drying out rivers, wells, and pasturelands.

For livestock-dependent communities, the impact has been immediate: animals are dying, and with them, livelihoods are disappearing.

As local production collapses, families are forced to buy from markets even as food, fuel, and water prices continue to rise. In rural areas, especially, incomes no longer stretch far enough to meet needs.

Insecurity caused by armed conflict adds further strain, displacing communities and limiting access for aid workers in some regions.

Beyond Somalia, the global economic crisis linked to the US–Israeli war on Iran has also played a role in constricting supply chains. A UN aid chief told the Reuters news agency in March that these disruptions are compounding costs and weakening the ability to deliver assistance, as humanitarian systems come under growing strain.

MSF reported last month that transport costs have risen by up to 50 percent in parts of Somalia, making it harder for people to reach health facilities and increasing the cost of delivering care as fuel prices climb.

The organisation also said more than 200 health and nutrition facilities have closed since early 2025 due to sharp funding cuts, leaving critical gaps in already overstretched health services.

What does the aid collapse look like?

As the need for aid rises, humanitarian funding and response capacities are only shrinking.

The UN response plan for Somalia is currently funded at just 20 percent of what is required — with $1.42bn needed but only $288m received. That discrepancy has forced major cuts, reducing the number of people targeted for assistance from 6 million to just 1.3 million.

For Somalia, which relies heavily on imported food and external assistance, the consequences are immediate. Fewer supplies are reaching ports, while the cost of delivering essentials continues to rise, testing an already fragile system.

As UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told Reuters in March, “These [constraints] will damage our humanitarian supply chains, reduce ‌the ⁠humanitarian supplies we can get to people who need them, but they’ll also drive up energy costs and food costs across the region, this really is a perfect storm of factors right now, and I’m seriously worried,” he stated.

The humanitarian response has been cut by 75 percent, meaning millions of Somalis are no longer receiving assistance, even as the crisis deepens on the ground.