The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme published their Hunger Hotspots report on 19 June 2026. It names 13 countries where acute hunger is expected to worsen between June and November. Six are in the highest-concern group: Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, Palestine and Somalia. Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti are rated very high concern, and Myanmar, Mali, Lebanon and Madagascar are also listed.
In Sudan, 19.5 million people, 41 per cent of the population, faced high levels of acute food insecurity through May, and the number in catastrophic conditions is projected to rise to 200,000. South Sudan has 7.8 million people, 55 per cent, at crisis level or worse. Across all the countries listed, about 266 million people face severe food insecurity.
Armed conflict is the main driver in 12 of the 13 contexts, made worse by economic strain, extreme weather, a projected shift towards El Niño conditions, the Middle East conflict and an Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC. The report also notes that humanitarian food assistance in crisis settings fell by an estimated 59 per cent between 2022 and 2025, and says modern famines are largely man-made and preventable. The report’s window ends this month.
Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office / OGL v1.0 / Wikimedia Commons
