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A new international report backed by UN agencies warns that global hunger is becoming increasingly entrenched and concentrated in a small group of conflict-affected countries. The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises, released Friday by a coalition of 18 humanitarian and development partners, finds that 266 million people across 47 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025—nearly a quarter of the population analyzed and almost double the share recorded in 2016.

According to the report, famine was confirmed in two separate contexts in 2025: areas of the Gaza Strip and parts of Sudan. This marks the first time since formal famine reporting began that two famines have been recorded in a single year, as Al Jazeera reported.

Coverage comparison

Coverage of the report varied in focus. Al Jazeera and AllAfrica both highlighted the global scale of the crisis, with AllAfrica emphasizing that hunger is "no longer a series of short-term emergencies, but a persistent and increasingly concentrated global challenge." Dawn, a Pakistani outlet, gave prominence to Pakistan's inclusion among the ten countries with the largest food crises, detailing the impact of severe flooding on millions of people. TASS, the Russian state news agency, focused on the sharp increase in catastrophic hunger since 2016, describing a ninefold rise.

Key claims

Across the sources, the following facts were consistently reported:

  • 266 million people across 47 countries experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, according to the report, as cited by Al Jazeera, AllAfrica, and TASS.
  • Famine was confirmed in Gaza and parts of Sudan in 2025, the first dual confirmation of its kind, per all four sources.
  • Conflict remains the primary driver of acute food insecurity, accounting for more than half of all people facing severe hunger, as stated by Al Jazeera and reinforced by AllAfrica.
  • Ten countries account for two-thirds of people facing acute hunger, according to AllAfrica and TASS. These countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen.
  • 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished across 23 countries and territories experiencing nutrition crises, including nearly 10 million with severe acute malnutrition, as reported by TASS.
  • More than 85 million people were forcibly displaced across food-crisis contexts in 2025, according to the report, as noted by TASS.

Perspectives

Pakistan-specific details were highlighted by Dawn, which reported that 9.3 million people in Pakistan face "crisis" conditions and another 1.7 million face "emergency" conditions—the two most severe categories short of famine. The report names Pakistan among the ten largest food crises in 2025, with severe monsoon rains and flash floods affecting more than 6 million people. These claims are drawn from a single source (Dawn) and have not been independently corroborated by other outlets in this coverage.

The report also notes that the number of people facing catastrophic hunger has increased ninefold since 2016, and that cases of acute hunger have doubled, according to TASS. The proportion of analyzed populations facing acute hunger has stayed above 20 percent every year since 2020, as Al Jazeera reported. The report cautions that a slight drop in the headline figure compared with 2024 reflects a reduction in the number of countries covered, not a real decline in needs.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in the report's foreword, called it "a call to action," stressing the need for political will "to rapidly scale up investment in lifesaving aid, and work to end the conflicts that inflict so much suffering on so many." Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu warned that acute food insecurity has become "structural rather than temporary."