Food Crisis in Africa Escalates: UN Warns of Widespread Hunger and Starvation Risk

Addis Ababa / Geneva, September 17, 2025 — A new wave of global concern is rising after United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations sounded alarms over the worsening food crisis in multiple African countries. Driven by a confluence of armed conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes, and shrinking humanitarian funding, millions across Africa are at escalating risk of acute food insecurity, with many facing conditions approaching famine.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) jointly released the "Hunger Hotspots" report in June 2025, identifying 13 regions worldwide in urgent need of food assistance through October. Of these, eight are African nations: Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Somalia. These countries are experiencing severe or deteriorating food shortages.

In West and Central Africa, over 52 million people are expected to face food and nutrition insecurity during the 2025 lean season, with more than 3 million in emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) levels of hunger. Countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad are among the worst affected. Displacement caused by conflict, inflation, currency depreciation, and rising fuel costs are severely disrupting access to food.

Southern Africa is also witnessing its worst food crisis in decades. Nations including Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, and Namibia are being battered by severe droughts and erratic rainfall associated with climate change, which have devastated crop yields and intensified the dependence on imported staple foods. In many rural areas, household purchasing power has plunged due to inflation of both food and fuel.

Conflict remains a central driver in many of these crises. In Sudan and South Sudan, protracted wars and political instability have displaced millions, disrupted agricultural seasons, and blocked humanitarian aid routes. The DRC has also reemerged as a hotspot due to renewed clashes in its eastern regions. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad continue to suffer from insurgency, violence and volatility, complicating food distribution and increasing risk for remote populations.

Compounding the problems are climate shocks — including prolonged droughts, untimely or heavy floods — often exacerbated by the El Niño/La Niña cycle. These have disrupted planting seasons, reduced pasture availability, and dramatically lowered crop yields in regions already fragile due to economic stress.

Meanwhile, international aid and humanitarian funding are falling short. Aid agencies warn that with restricted access in conflict areas, bureaucratic obstacles, and mounting logistic challenges, many vulnerable groups are not receiving timely support. Existing food assistance programmes are at risk of reductions, and many interventions remain underfunded.

Global organizations are calling for immediate and coordinated action. Key recommendations include ramping up emergency food aid, investing in resilient agriculture, improving access to early warning systems, fostering local markets, and securing flexible, predictable funding mechanisms. Without swift response, the risk of famine, mass displacement, and long-term nutritional damage is very high.

“We are at a tipping point,” says a senior WFP official. “These overlapping crises — conflict, climate extremes, economic disruption — are creating an environment where food insecurity becomes more entrenched, more widespread. The cost of delay is measured in lives.”

As global attention turns once more toward Africa’s hunger hotspots, the pressure is mounting on governments, donors, and international institutions to act decisively — not just with relief, but with long-term solutions that address the root causes of food vulnerability.