Hunger and child malnutrition rose for the sixth consecutive year in 2024, pushing millions of people to the brink in some of the world's most fragile regions, according to a new report released Friday. The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) shows that conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and forced displacement are fueling food insecurity and malnutrition around the world, with catastrophic consequences for many regions.
In 2024, more than 295 million people in 53 countries and territories experienced acute hunger - an increase of 13.7 million from 2023. The number of people facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) more than doubled over the same period, reaching 1.9 million - the highest on record since the GRFC began tracking in 2016.
More than 35.1 million people in 36 countries or territories faced emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), with nine countries having more than 1 million people in this phase. Nearly a quarter of them were in Sudan. Some 190 million people in 40 countries or territories were facing crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3).
“In a world of plenty, there is no excuse for children to go hungry or die of malnutrition. Hunger gnaws at the stomach of a child. It gnaws, too, at their dignity, their sense of safety, and their future,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
“How can we continue to stand by when there is more than enough food to feed every hungry child in the world? How can we ignore what is happening in front of our eyes? Millions of children’s lives hang in the balance as funding is slashed to critical nutrition services.”
According to the report, malnutrition, especially among children, reached extremely high levels last year, including in the Gaza Strip, Sudan, Mali and Yemen. Nearly 38 million children under the age of five were acutely malnourished across 26 nutrition crises.
The top ten countries with the largest number of people facing high levels of acute hunger were Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan and Yemen.
The ten countries and territories with the largest proportion of their population - one third or more - facing high levels of acute hunger were Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Gaza Strip, Haiti, Namibia, Syria, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia.
The report also revealed a sharp increase in hunger due to forced displacement, with nearly 95 million forcibly displaced people - including internally displaced persons (IDPs), asylum seekers and refugees - living in countries facing food crises such as DRC, Colombia, Sudan and Syria, out of a global total of 128 million forcibly displaced people.
Armed conflict remained the main driver of acute food insecurity, affecting some 140 million people in 20 countries and territories. While famine has been confirmed in Sudan, other hotspots with catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity include Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali.
Weather extremes, particularly droughts and extreme floods triggered by the El Niño climate phenomenon, have pushed 18 countries into food crises affecting more than 96 million people, with significant impacts in Southern Africa, South Asia, and the Horn of Africa.
Climate change is expected to further exacerbate food insecurity as the world continues to warm, with weather extremes becoming more prevalent and severe.
According to the GRFC, economic shocks, including inflation and currency devaluation, fueled hunger in 15 countries, affecting 59.4 million people. Some of the largest and most protracted food crises were driven primarily by economic shocks, including in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The report was prepared by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC), an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union (EU), and governmental and non-governmental organizations working together to address food crises.
According to the GRFC outlook, hunger shocks are likely to persist through 2025, as the Global Networ anticipates the most significant decline in humanitarian funding for food and nutrition crises in the report's nine-year history.
“This Global Report on Food Crises is another unflinching indictment of a world dangerously off course,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
“Long-standing crises are now being compounded by another, more recent one: the dramatic reduction in lifesaving humanitarian funding to respond to these needs. 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.”
Global humanitarian funding has plummeted in 2025, largely due to extreme funding cuts by the United States, but other major donors such as the United Kingdom and Germany have also scaled back their support. While global funding has been declining since 2022, despite rising needs, this year's levels are at record lows.
The abrupt cessation of funding in 2025 has already disrupted aid operations in Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia, Haiti, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen, and many other countries, following earlier cuts by major donors.
During a recent visit to Afghanistan, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' top aid official and Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that millions of people around the world will die because of the critical shortage of global humanitarian funding.
The situation is so grim because the United States has been the largest donor of humanitarian aid over the years. In 2024, the US government provided more than 40 percent of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations. Its abrupt retreat from this key role has left a gap that cannot be filled without urgent additional funding from other and new donors, along with drastic measures.
The EU is one of the few major global donors that has not slashed its contributions to humanitarian aid.
“This year’s Global Report on Food Crises paints yet another stark and unacceptable picture of rising hunger. This is not merely a call to action — it is a moral imperative”, said Hadja Lahbib, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management.
“At a time when funding cuts are straining the humanitarian system, we reaffirm our commitment to fight global hunger.”
The world's largest humanitarian organization, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) - like every other aid agency - is facing deep budget shortfalls that have forced drastic cuts to its food aid programs, putting millions of lives at risk.
“Millions of hungry people have lost, or will soon lose, the critical lifeline we provide. We have tried and tested solutions to hunger and food insecurity. But we need the support of our donors and partners to implement them,” said Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director.
The Global Report on Food Crises is an annual report published by the Global Network against Food Crises (GNAFC), based on data from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN). Since its first publication in 2017, the GRFC has been a key document on acute food insecurity at the global, regional and country levels.
IPC stands for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a collaborative multipartner initiative to improve food security and decision-making. The IPC Acute Food Insecurity Scale consists of five classifications: (1) minimal/none, (2) stressed, (3) crisis, (4) emergency, and (5) catastrophe/famine, with classifications 3 to 5 representing acute levels of hunger.
Further information
Full text: Global Report on Food Crises 2025, report, Food Security Information Network (FSIN), published May 16, 2025
https://www.fsinplatform.org/report/global-report-food-crises-2025/