Somalia’s hunger crisis is worsening as conflict, and funding cuts leave millions food insecure and vulnerable children without vital .
WFP
Hunger is rising just as resources to fight it are under growing pressure. Some 266 million people face acute food insecurity, while 2.69 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. Climate shocks are adding to the strain: the current El Niño cycle could push another 49 million people into acute hunger by the end of 2027. Yet early action can make a difference. In 2025, WFP helped 6.3 million people prepare for climate shocks before disaster struck. WFP is calling for action to end conflict, protect humanitarian access, close funding gaps and invest in early warning and innovation.
In South Sudan, Lokitoe Lokale watches crops wither as drought leaves her struggling to feed her four children. WFP cash assistance arrived when her family needed it most, helping her buy maize flour and beans. Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, similar early support is helping families brace for a powerful El Niño that could push nearly 50 million people into acute hunger. From cash and drought warnings to livestock support, grain silos and farming supplies, the World Food Programme is acting before disaster strikes. In Chad, Oumar is protecting his animals; in Guatemala, Teresa can preserve her harvest. Their stories show how timely assistance can protect food, livelihoods and dignity before weather shocks hit hardest.
Disruptions to key global trade routes raise food, fuel and fertilizer costs, threatening food security and increasing hunger risks in vulnerable countries worldwide.
WFP’s e-voucher programme gives displaced families in Nigeria’s Borno State the freedom to choose nutritious food while strengthening local markets and livelihoods.
In Uganda’s Karamoja region, failed rains have devastated crops and left more than 600,000 people facing hunger. For Paulina Awii, the drought meant watching her sorghum wither and struggling to feed her five children, including 16-month-old Margaret, who developed acute malnutrition. Food assistance and monthly cash support are now helping the family buy nutritious food, while Margaret has gained weight. Across Karamoja, the World Food Programme and the Government are providing food, school meals and nutrition support, while helping communities grow drought-tolerant crops and prepare for future weather extremes.
After devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, WFP staff are supporting affected communities with food and solidarity, even as they cope with profound personal losses themselves.
Funding cuts and worsening humanitarian conditions are leaving millions of Afghan children and mothers without the nutrition and healthcare they urgently need.
Despite modest improvements, most people in Gaza still face severe hunger, with limited aid, funding shortages, and restricted access threatening recovery and food security.
A child wades through water in Uvira, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, after El Niño-induced torrential rains caused Lake Tanganyika to overflow in 2024. El Niño is one of the world's strongest climate patterns, bringing droughts, floods and extreme weather that damage crops, disrupt markets and drive hunger in vulnerable communities. Because its impacts can be forecast months in advance, governments and humanitarian agencies have a critical window to act before food crises escalate. Through anticipatory action—such as cash assistance, food support, early-warning systems and climate monitoring—the World Food Programme helps families protect their livelihoods and reduce future losses.
WFP has been providing food and other humanitarian assistance to Ebola-affected areas: hot meals to patients, family members and health workers; along with take-home food rations and nutrition support to other vulnerable people that together reach more than 1.2 million Congolese. Why? Because Food assistance helps patients and family members remain under observation, reduces the need for people to travel in search of food, and supports wider efforts to contain the spread of Ebola. In addition, WFP is providing logistics, telecommunications and air transport to move humanitarian workers and essential cargo to the frontlines of the Ebola crisis in eastern DRC. WFP warns that conflict, displacement and rising food prices are worsening the crisis and is seeking US$72 million to sustain the Ebola response.
Can art change the way we see a humanitarian crisis? A powerful traveling exhibition is bringing deeply personal stories from Gaza to audiences across Europe through paintings created amid conflict, loss, and uncertainty. Tens of thousands have flocked to see Ahmed Muhanna's paintings of food insecurity and survival in Gaza. With his painting supplies running out during Gaza's war, Muhanna swapped acrylics for charcoal and coffee, and canvas for WFP food boxes. The exhibition invites visitors to look beyond headlines and statistics to the human experiences behind them.
From Indonesia to Afghanistan, fortified biscuits travel 15,000 km across closed borders and conflict zones to reach Afghan schoolchildren who rely on WFP meals.
WFP warns in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is spreading rapidly, worsening hunger, displacement, and overwhelming fragile humanitarian response systems.
WFP-backed reduces in Pakistan through nutrition support, counselling, and maternal health services.