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STORY: FAO / FOOD CRISES REPORT
TRT: 03:35
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 APRIL 2026, ROME, ITALY / FILE
FILE - 6 MARCH 2024, DOLLOW, SOMALIA
1. Med shot, farmers ploughing by hand
FILE - 15 OCTOBER 2025, BALKH, AFGHANISTAN
2. Close up, hands opening dry soybean pods
FILE - 31 DECEMBER 2025, GAZA
3. Med shot, fishers repairing fishing nets against a background of shipwrecks
FILE - 6-12 JULY 2025, COTACACHI, ECUADOR
4. Close up, woman working in a field
FILE - ROME, ITALY
5. Aerial shot, FAO headquarters
20 APRIL 2026, ROME, ITALY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "We have a situation where the total number is measured as 266 million people in 47 countries and territories. But what really concerns us is what's happening in terms of intensity, severity and the protracted nature of this acute food insecurity."
FILE - 23 NOVEMBER 2024, RUSAYO 2 IDP CAMP, RUSAYO, NORTH KIVU, DRC
7. Aerial shot, internally displaced camp
8. Med shot, FAO micro-garden
FILE - 23 JUNE 2025, SOMALI REGION, ETHIOPIA
9. Wide shot, FAO animal feed distribution
10. Wide shot, pastoralists herding goats
20 APRIL 2026, ROME, ITALY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "What we have is not an improvement in the [acute] food insecurity situation. What we have are blind spots in terms of data. This also requires urgent action. Where we have data gaps, obviously we're not able to fully document need. Where we have collective data gaps, our ability to design and implement programs are impacted. And ultimately, these data gaps are going to hamper all of our collective efforts to drive forward the positive improvements we need in food security."
FILE - 31 DECEMBER 2025, GAZA
12. Close up, war remnant on agricultural land
13. Med shot, farmer working in a field
FILE - 17 APRIL 2024, TOBIN VILLAGE, SUDAN
14. Various shots, Rein Paulsen checking agricultural production
20 APRIL 2026, ROME, ITALY
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "Famine has been confirmed for the first time in this global report in the same calendar year, in two different geographical locations in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan. And this, of course, is a deeply concerning situation. And there's an urgent need for attention at both policy levels and operational levels. Famine is directly related to conflict."
FILE - 15 DECEMBER 2025, DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP
16. Wide shot, herder collecting fodder distributed by FAO
FILE - 1 MARCH 2023, ALEPPO, SYRIA
17. Wide shot, FAO personnel meeting farmers
FILE - 23 JUNE 2025, SOMALI REGION, ETHIOPIA
18. Med shot, herders carrying animal feed distributed by FAO
FILE - JUNE 2025, SOUTH SUDAN
19. Close up, woman sorting FAO-distributed seeds
20. Med shot, FAO veterinarians vaccinating sheep
20 APRIL 2026, ROME, ITALY
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "We know that to address acute food insecurity, you need the right mix of in-kind assistance and support to boost emergency agricultural food production. We have evidence that shows that when you combine these things in the right way, the positive outcomes in terms of food security can be 17 times as much as if food aid alone is provided."
FILE - JUNE 2024, BORAMA DISTRICT, SOMALIA
22. Wide shot, FAO officers in a drought-tolerant seeds project with Amoud University
FILE - 2 MAY 2023, IJEBU-ODE, NIGERIA
23. Top shot, woman working in aquaculture farm
FILE - 23 MAY 2022, NETRAKONA PROVINCE, BANGLADESH
24. Wide shot, women farmers sorting rice
FILE - 6-12 JULY 2025, COTACACHI, ECUADOR
25. Med shot, woman harvesting vegetables
FILE - JUNE 2025, SOUTH SUDAN
26. Wide shot, women cultivating a field
FILE - 1 MARCH 2023, ALEPPO, SYRIA
27. Close up, farmer harvesting vegetables
FILE - ROME, ITALY
28. Close up, FAO flag
Acute food insecurity and malnutrition levels remain alarmingly high and deeply entrenched, with crises increasingly concentrated in a core group of countries, according to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2026, released on Friday 24 April 2026 by an international alliance. In its tenth edition, the GRFC shows that acute hunger has doubled over the past decade, with two famines declared last year for the first time in the report’s history.
The report from the Global Network Against Food Crises reveals that acute food insecurity remains highly concentrated. Ten countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen — accounted for two-thirds of all people facing high levels of acute hunger. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen experienced the largest food crises both in terms of the share and absolute number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "We have a situation where the total number is measured as 266 million people in 47 countries and territories. But what really concerns us is what's happening in terms of intensity, severity and the protracted nature of this acute food insecurity."
In total, 266 million people in 47 countries/territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, representing almost 23 percent of the analysed population – a proportion that is marginally higher than in 2024 and nearly double the share recorded in 2016. In 2025, the severity of acute food insecurity was the second highest on record, with the share of people facing extreme hunger remaining at one of the most critical levels seen in the past two decades.
In total, 266 million people in 47 countries/territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, representing almost 23 percent of the analysed population – a proportion that is marginally higher than in 2024 and nearly double the share recorded in 2016. In 2025, the severity of acute food insecurity was the second highest on record, with the share of people facing extreme hunger remaining at one of the most critical levels seen in the past two decades. The number of people facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) is nine times higher than it was in 2016.
At the same time, acute malnutrition remains a critical and growing concern. In 2025 alone, 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished, including nearly 10 million suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Nearly half of food-crisis contexts also faced nutrition crises, reflecting the combined effects of inadequate diets, disease burden, and breakdowns in essential services. In the most severe contexts, including Gaza, Myanmar, South Sudan and Sudan, these compounded shocks have resulted in extreme levels of malnutrition and elevated risks of mortality.
In addition, forced displacement continued to exacerbate food insecurity. More than 85 million people were forcibly displaced across food-crisis contexts in 2025, including internally displaced people, asylum-seekers and refugees with people forced to flee consistently facing higher levels of acute hunger than host communities.
The apparent decline in the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity is largely a reflection of declining data availability rather than a real improvement. The 2026 GRFC features the lowest number of countries with data meeting technical requirements in a decade. In 2025, 18 countries and territories lacked comparable data, including several major crises such as Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, which alone accounted for more than 27 million acutely food-insecure people in need of urgent assistance in 2024. This is reflected in the total number of people facing acute food insecurity detailed in the report. While this number is lower than the number in last year’s report, it does not necessarily reflect an improvement in food security contexts, but rather an absence and lack of access to reliable data.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "What we have is not an improvement in the [acute] food insecurity situation. What we have are blind spots in terms of data. This also requires urgent action. Where we have data gaps, obviously we're not able to fully document need. Where we have collective data gaps, our ability to design and implement programs are impacted. And ultimately, these data gaps are going to hamper all of our collective efforts to drive forward the positive improvements we need in food security."
At the most extreme end, famine was identified in Gaza Governorate and parts of Sudan in 2025 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system. This marks the first time since the GRFC began reporting that famine has been confirmed in two separate contexts in the same year. This signals a sharp escalation in the most extreme forms of hunger and malnutrition, driven primarily by conflict and restricted humanitarian access, and exacerbated by forced displacement.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "Famine has been confirmed for the first time in this global report in the same calendar year, in two different geographical locations in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan. And this, of course, is a deeply concerning situation. And there's an urgent need for attention at both policy levels and operational levels. Famine is directly related to conflict."
In addition, forced displacement continued to exacerbate food insecurity. More than 85 million people were forcibly displaced across food-crisis contexts in 2025, including internally displaced people, asylum-seekers and refugees with people forced to flee consistently facing higher levels of acute hunger than host communities.
Looking ahead, the report warns that severe levels of acute food insecurity remain critical in multiple contexts in 2026. Ongoing conflicts, climate variability and global economic uncertainty — including risks to food markets — are likely to sustain or worsen conditions in many countries.
In particular, while a full assessment is premature, the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East – in addition to causing further displacement in a region already hosting millions of forcibly displaced and returnees - exposes countries/territories with food crises to both direct and indirect risks of global agrifood market disruptions.
Immediate food security implications are mainly regional, given the Middle East’s dependence on food imports, but are having immediate impacts on the purchasing power of already-vulnerable communities as energy and logistics costs rise. At the same time, Gulf countries are major energy and fertilizer exporters, and continued transport disruptions could create wider spillover risks for global agrifood markets, the report warns.
A major concern highlighted in this year’s report is the sharp decline in humanitarian and development financing for food crises. Funding for food crises responses and for food security and nutrition has fallen back to levels last seen nearly a decade ago, limiting the ability of governments and humanitarian actors to respond effectively. Data collection has also been impacted, with fewer countries able to produce reliable and disaggregated food security and nutrition estimates.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, FAO: "We know that to address acute food insecurity, you need the right mix of in-kind assistance and support to boost emergency agricultural food production. We have evidence that shows that when you combine these things in the right way, the positive outcomes in terms of food security can be 17 times as much as if food aid alone is provided."
The Global Network Against Food Crises underscores that food and nutrition crises are no longer temporary shocks but persistent, predictable, and increasingly concentrated in protracted contexts.
Addressing them requires boosting sustained, coordinated action that reduces humanitarian needs, builds resilience and tackles root causes. Governments, donors, international financial institutions and partners must scale up investment in resilient agrifood systems, climate adaptation, rural livelihoods and inclusive economic opportunities, while strengthening early warning systems and enabling anticipatory action. Preventing the most severe outcomes, including famine, also depends on ensuring safe humanitarian access, upholding international humanitarian law, and reinforcing political commitment to address conflict-driven hunger.
Note to editors:
High levels of acute food insecurity refer to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)/ Cadre Harmonisé (CH) Phase 3 or above or equivalent levels of acute food insecurity derived from IPC /CH and other acute food insecurity data sources listed in the report. The populations facing high levels of acute food insecurity are in need of urgent assistance.
About the GNAFC
The Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) is an international alliance of the United Nations; the European Union; Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO); the Government of Ireland; the Group of Seven Plus (g7+); governmental and non-governmental agencies working together to address food crises with evidence-based actions proven to deliver impact.
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