Global food security at ‘a critical level’ as Iran war threatens new shock, UN warns

Major producers, including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil, Sudan, and Kenya, are now entering critical planting cycles as energy and fertiliser costs soar.

As the season shifts towards the Northern Hemisphere in May, the window to secure the 2026 harvest is rapidly closing.

Last year, ten countries accounted for two-thirds of all people facing acute food insecurity globally, said the UN.

Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan alone represent nearly one-third of the total, according to the report.

Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen experienced the worst food crises, both in terms of the share and absolute number of people facing acute food insecurity.

More than 80 per cent of those affected live in countries affected by conflict.

An estimated 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished across the surveyed countries, including just under 10 million with severe acute malnutrition.

For many, the damage will be irreversible.

Children who survive acute malnutrition, often suffer permanent “stunting” – lifelong cognitive and physical damage.

Famine was last year confirmed in two areas – parts of the Gaza Strip and in Sudan – marking a first since records began, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the UN-backed global hunger monitor.

Improvements were reported in Bangladesh, Niger, parts of Nigeria and Sudan, and the Syrian Arab Republic, the report said.