Over half of Africa’s population suffered from food insecurity: UN report
Nearly 80% of babies in Africa aged six to 23 months lacked adequate nutrition in 2025. Armed violence is the main driver of hunger.
Dorcas Simon, 38-year-old, plays with her twin daughters during a food training event in Kaltungo's Poshereng Nigeria, Sunday, June 2, 2024. Dorcas Simon's nine-month-old twin daughters cried nonstop and tugged at her clothes for attention but also for food. They've barely had any food in the past 24 hours. But that's not new. It's all too obvious in their protuberant abdomens and heads too big for their tiny bodies. She knows they need food but finding what to eat is a struggle in this part of northern Nigeria where conflict and climate change have limited earnings of families and their access to farmlands. Even Simon's breastmilk is barely enough for her children. Photo: AP
Over half of Africa’s population faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, with one in five suffering hunger, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report.
It is the UN’s flagship annual assessment of global hunger, jointly prepared every year by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Its 2026 edition, published on July 21, estimated that 645 million people globally, amounting to 7.8% of the world’s population, suffered hunger last year. While noting that this marks a reduction from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022, the report highlighted “stark regional differences.”
The 20% of Africa’s population facing hunger last year compared to 8% in Oceania, 6% in Asia, 4.8% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and under 2.5% in Europe and North America.
Africa has long been the continent with the highest proportion of hunger in its population. However, Asia, whose population is three times Africa’s, previously had the highest absolute number of hungry people.
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