This year could be a pivot point for global hunger. Despite decades of humanitarian progress, we are witnessing a dramatic reversal: more people are facing severe hunger today than at any point in the past decade. Conflict, climate shocks, and economic collapse are pushing millions to the brink of famine.
Our new 2026 Global Hunger Hotspots report draws on first-hand experience from our teams working in crisis zones and analysis of the latest data from the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025) and the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC 2025). Based on the latest data available, 295 million people are facing acute food insecurity across 59 countries. Two-thirds of these individuals live in just ten countries, totaling over 196 million people in crisis, emergency, or catastrophe/famine conditions. As we look ahead to 2026, these ten hunger hot spots demand our urgent attention and action.
A Devastating Concentration of Hunger
The countries on our list share disturbing commonalities. Armed conflict, extreme weather events, economic shocks, and structural inequalities create a toxic combination that turns manageable challenges into humanitarian catastrophes. Here are the top three:
Nigeria: The World’s Largest Food Crisis — Nigeria tops our list with 31.8 million people in acute food insecurity. In the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, the Boko Haram insurgency and ISWAP violence have devastated communities for over 15 years. The 2024 floods, which destroyed 1.1 million hectares of farmland, compounded this crisis. With 5.4 million children suffering from acute malnutrition and inflation at 35%, Nigerian families face impossible choices between food, medicine, and shelter. The drastic cuts to international humanitarian funding threaten to push millions more into hunger.
Sudan: A Nation on the Edge of Famine — Sudan’s civil war, which has been raging since April 2023, has created one of the world’s fastest deteriorating humanitarian crises. With 25.6 million people food insecure and famine already declared in five areas, the situation is dire. Over 14 million people have been displaced, and 70-80% of hospitals are non-functional. The siege of El Fasher has left hundreds of thousands trapped without access to food or water. Unless immediate action is taken, famine will spread to additional regions in 2026.
Democratic Republic of Congo: Suffering Outside the Spotlight — The advance of the M23 movement in early 2025 captured strategic cities, displacing millions and severing access to essential services. With 25.6 million people facing acute food insecurity, the crisis affects both displaced populations and host communities, already struggling with poverty and lack of infrastructure.
The remaining seven countries on our list face equally severe challenges: Bangladesh (23.6 million people in acute food insecurity) hosts nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees while grappling with devastating cyclones and floods. Ethiopia (22 million) continues to struggle with the aftermath of conflict in Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia, while drought decimates pastoral communities. Yemen (16.7 million) faces its worst drought in decades amid ongoing conflict. Afghanistan (15.8 million), Myanmar (14.4 million), Pakistan (11.8 million), and Syria (9.2 million) each face their own combination of conflict, climate shocks, and economic collapse.
Climate change is no longer a future threat; it is a present crisis multiplier. In Pakistan, the 2025 monsoon floods followed devastating droughts, destroying crops and displacing millions. Myanmar experiences both severe flooding and insufficient, erratic rainfall. These climate shocks are not isolated incidents but part of a pattern that will intensify in 2026 and beyond.
Somalia offers another stark example of the climate crisis intensifying hunger. Though not among the top ten in absolute numbers, the country faces a catastrophic drought emergency following four consecutive seasons of failed rains. The Federal Government declared a national drought emergency in November 2025 as conditions rapidly deteriorated across northern, central, and southern regions. At least 4.4 million people—nearly one-quarter of Somalia’s population—were projected to face severe food insecurity through December 2025, with that number expected to rise to 5.9 million by early 2026. What makes Somalia’s crisis particularly alarming is the timing: drought conditions have worsened precisely as funding cuts force humanitarian organizations to scale back assistance. The number of people receiving emergency food aid plummeted from 1.1 million in August to just 350,000 in November, while over 200 health and nutrition facilities were forced to close. This preventable catastrophe demonstrates how climate shocks combined with funding shortfalls can rapidly push vulnerable populations toward famine.
The Most Vulnerable Contexts
While these ten countries represent the largest absolute numbers, our report also highlights three additional contexts that demand urgent attention due to the severity of their crises: Gaza, where 100% of the population faces acute food insecurity and famine has been declared; South Sudan, where 56% of the population cannot access sufficient food; and Haiti, where gang violence and economic collapse have pushed 50% of the population into crisis.
Across these thirteen contexts, nearly 30 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, with 8.5 million severely malnourished and at elevated risk of death without treatment. At least 13 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are malnourished, creating intergenerational consequences that will echo for decades. We are not just facing a hunger crisis – we are witnessing the systematic destruction of a generation’s potential.
The Funding Crisis Threatens Lives
Perhaps most alarming is the withdrawal of international support at this critical moment. The United States announced an 83% cut to USAID humanitarian programs, with significant reductions following from Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands. A recent study in The Lancet showed that USAID-funded programs saved over 90 million lives in the past 20 years. If the new, lower levels of funding are maintained through 2030, it could cause 14 million preventable deaths, including 4.5 million children under five.
The hunger crisis is solvable, but only with sustained political will and adequate resources. We need immediate action to advance solutions that work: ensuring safe humanitarian access, integrating climate adaptation into food security programs, prioritizing women and children, providing adequate and flexible funding, supporting local solutions, strengthening hunger prevention, and upholding the right to adequate food as a fundamental human right.
As we look ahead to 2026, the question is not whether we can prevent these crises from worsening – we know we can. The question is whether we will. The countries on our list are caught in a vicious cycle: as hunger deepens, so does instability, making it even harder to deliver aid and build lasting solutions. Our teams work alongside communities showing extraordinary resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship. What they need now is meaningful action from the entire international community.
