Tag Archives: insecurity

World News in Brief: Food insecurity in Lebanon, Libya migrants freed, UNHCR tackles multiple emergencies – despite cuts

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According to the latest UN-backed IPC Food Security Phase Classification report, around 874,000 people are facing crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity between November 2025 and March 2026. 

Certain districts and areas have been more severely affected, particularly parts of Baalbek and El Hermel, Akkar, Baabda, Zahle, Saida, Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun, El Nabatieh, Tyre, and refugee communities.

This is the first assessment to include people who arrived from Syria after December 2024, recognising shifting displacement patterns and new vulnerabilities. 

Assistance is essential 

Looking ahead, the situation is expected to worsen rapidly due to a combination of factors, including reduced food assistance, economic pressures, and rising living costs.

Between April and July 2026, food insecurity will rise to 961,000 people, nearly 18 per cent of the population, according to the IPC report. 

“People’s needs remain high, and predictable assistance will be essential to help people meet basic food needs and prevent further deterioration.” said Anne Valand, WFP representative and country director in Lebanon. 

Migrants freed from abusive detention sites in eastern Libya

The UN migration agency (IOM) has deployed emergency teams to eastern Libya to assist hundreds of migrants released from illegal detention sites where they were held in appalling conditions.

Libyan authorities last week closed an unlawful detention facility in Ajdabiya, leading to the release of 195 migrants and the recovery of 21 bodies from a nearby burial site. 

Initial investigations indicate the victims had been held captive and subjected to torture to extort ransom payments from their families.

Buried underground

In a separate operation in Kufra, security forces uncovered an underground detention site three metres below ground. 

A total of 221 migrants and refugees were freed, including women and children, among them a one-month-old baby. At least ten people were transferred to hospital for urgent treatment after being held for prolonged periods in grossly inhumane conditions.

“These shocking cases highlight the severe risks faced by migrants who fall prey to criminal networks operating along migration routes,” said Nicoletta Giordano, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Libya.

IOM teams are providing medical screenings, referring urgent cases to hospitals and distributing warm clothing to survivors. 

The agency welcomed efforts by Libyan authorities to rescue victims and launch investigations, while stressing the need to strengthen protection systems, dismantle trafficking networks and ensure accountability for perpetrators.

UNHCR responds to mounting crises despite funding shortfalls

Despite severe funding shortfalls, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, responded to a surge of complex emergencies and deepening long-running crises last year, according to its newly released 2025 Impact Report: Response to New Emergencies and Protracted Crises.

Throughout 2025, agency teams provided protection and assistance in some of the world’s most volatile settings. 

They supported people fleeing renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo into Burundi and Uganda, assisted those escaping fresh fighting in and beyond South Sudan, and helped millions of Afghans returning or being forced back from Iran and Pakistan.

Protracted crises also worsened. Ongoing conflict in Sudan, intensified attacks on Ukraine and escalating violence in Colombia triggered repeated displacement, further eroding already fragile living conditions.

Positive response

“In 2025, displacement occurred amid protracted conflict, recurrent disasters, and new outbreaks of violence,” said Ayaki Ito, UNHCR’s Director of Emergency and Programme Support.

“In this environment, UNHCR teams continued to respond to the needs of people forced to flee, even as severe resource constraints limited our capacity.”

Emergency support included clean water for half a million people in Sudan, cash assistance for Afghan and Syrian returnees, and more than a million services for displaced people inside Ukraine and in neighbouring host countries.

UNHCR warned that humanitarian needs are set to rise further in 2026 as conflicts continue to drive displacement affecting nearly 52 million people.

You can find additional background on UNHCR’s emergency response work, here.
 

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DR Congo: Rising insecurity in the east impedes diplomatic progress, Security Council hears

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Despite diplomatic progress in recent months, with the United States brokering a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda, and Qatar facilitating a Declaration of Principles between the Congolese Government and M23 rebels, tensions remain high in the eastern DRC – where multiple armed groups operate.  

The Security Council has also sought to promote peace in the restive region, notably through its adoption of resolution 2773 in February 2025 calling upon all parties to refrain from violence against civilians. Still, casualties continue to rise in the east of the country.

“In North Kivu, the situation has escalated significantly since April,” Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations told ambassadors.  

The DRC is currently facing one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the world, with food insecurity on the rise and 5.9 million Congolese currently internally displaced.  

Significant escalation

“Regrettably, the evolution of the security situation on the ground has not matched the progress achieved on the diplomatic front,” said Ms Pobee.  

Recent attacks carried out by the M23 and Congo River Alliance (AFC) armed groups, as well as assaults by the Allied Democratic Forces – a militia associated with the terrorist group ISIL – have dramatically increased civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, humanitarian workers continue to risk their lives to provide limited assistance to populations in need.  

Amid general indifference, conflict-related sexual violence persists, as does the forced recruitment of children. 

‘Critical juncture’

“We cannot and must not accept the extreme suffering and recurrent horrors that are commonplace in eastern DRC,” said Ms Pobee.  

To protect civilians, restore law and order, and address the profound humanitarian needs of the population, the parties must cease hostilities.  

“At this critical juncture for the DRC and the region, it is crucial that this Council place its full weight behind current peace efforts, alongside exerting its influence to ensure respect for and compliance with resolution 2773”, she told the Security Council.  

While the situation on the ground remains dire, genuine engagement by the parties, together with concerted support from the international community, will help lay the groundwork for a durable peace, the top official underlined. 

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World News in Brief: Cholera strikes Sudan and beyond, humanitarian needs grown for returning Afghans, rising insecurity in DR Congo

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So far this year, cholera has killed more than 4,300 people across 31 countries. These figures are underestimates and there is particular concern for those impacted by war in Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Yemen.  

In Sudan, the disease has already claimed over 1,000 lives since 1 January. It has reached every state in the country, one year after the outbreak started, according to WHO.

Cases rise in war-torn Darfur

With the sub-Saharan rainy season now underway, the UN agency is worried about a spike in the waterborne disease, linked to the huge numbers of people fleeing ongoing violence.

“While cases have plateaued or decreased in some areas, including Khartoum, they are rising in the Darfur region and neighboring Chad. In Tawila, North Darfur,” said WHO’s Kathryn Alberti.

Refugees have quadrupled the population from close to 200,000 to over 800,000, causing immense strain on water and sanitation systems, she added.

“People have as little as three litres of water daily and this is for cooking, washing, cleaning and drinking.”  

To respond to the problem, WHO and partners have set up task forces, deployed rapid response teams for surveillance and stockpiled essential cholera supplies in Darfur – although “large parts” of Darfur and Kordofan remain unreachable.

Humanitarian needs keep growing in Afghanistan

Four years after the de-facto Taliban regime took over Afghanistan, more than half of the population needs vital aid, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).

Women and girls are particularly vulnerable due to the increasingly restrictive policies that Taliban authorities have imposed, excluding them from education, the workforce and public life.

“Humanitarian aid is a lifeline for women and girls who are otherwise unable to access essential services and assistance,” said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, at Friday’s daily briefing in New York.  

1.7 million returnees 

OCHA also warned that the return of 1.7 million Afghan citizens from Iran and Pakistan this year has further increased humanitarian needs, as most have limited community ties and are struggling to find shelter and ways of making a living.

To support the response of the under-resourced host communities, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) recently released $10 million, and additional funding is in the pipeline from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund.

But more resources are urgently needed. This year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan in Afghanistan is just 25 per cent funded, with $624 million received of the $2.4 billion that are needed, and another influx of refugees is expected ahead of Pakistan’s 1 September deadline for Afghan Proof of Registration cardholders to exit.

Insecurity also rising in DR Congo’s restive east

In the war-torn eastern parts Democratic Republic of the Congo, OCHA says insecurity is on the rise in Djigu territory, in Ituri province.

Clashes between multiple armed groups and the Congolese armed forces in several areas has resulted in nearly 50 civilian deaths and more than 30 injuries in the past month alone there.

In the same period, violence and insecurity have led to the displacement of more than 80,000 people in Djugu.

In the attacks, homes were looted or burned, and those who fled are now sheltering in schools, churches and other public buildings.

Targeted killings

There have been three targeted attacks on sites hosting internally displaced people.

These clashes have severely limited humanitarian access, depriving around 250,000 people of essential services. In the Nizi health district in the Ituri territory, nine out of 12 health facilities are now out of service.

The UN and its humanitarian partners are ready to respond, but they need unimpeded, safe access to do so.

“All parties must take urgent measures to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian access. Civilians must be protected at all times, in line with international law,” stressed Mr. Dujarric on Friday. 

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Nigeria: Amid record hunger and surging insecurity, emergency food assistance to stall entirely

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While WFP has been able to hold hunger at bay across northern Nigeria in the first half of 2025, funding shortfalls are jeopardising such efforts, with life-saving programmes set to grind to a halt by the end of July.  

Without immediate funding, millions of vulnerable people will be left without food assistance as WFP’s food and nutrition stocks have been completely exhausted, with the organization’s last supplies leaving warehouses in early July.  

With life-saving assistance set to end after the current round of distributions is completed, millions of vulnerable people will face impossible choices: endure increasingly severe hunger, migrate, or even risk possible exploitation by extremist groups in the region.  

Children at risk

“Nearly 31 million people in Nigeria are now facing acute hunger, a record number,” said WFP Country Director David Stevenson, with children set to be among the worst affected if vital aid ends.  

With more than 150 WFP-supported nutrition clinics in Borno and Yobe states set to close if funding is not renewed, over 300,000 children under the age of two will lose access to potential life-saving treatment.  

“This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “It’s a growing threat to regional stability, as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn.”  

Extremist groups  

In conflict-affected areas in the north, escalating violence from extremist groups is driving mass displacement, with some 2.3 million people across the Lake Chad Basin having been forced to flee their homes.  

As mass displacement strains already limited resources and pushes communities to the brink, the lack of emergency food assistance risks increasing recruitment by these groups.

“When emergency assistance ends, many will migrate in search of food and shelter. Others will adopt negative coping mechanisms – including potentially joining insurgent groups – to survive,” said Mr. Stevenson.    

“Food assistance can often prevent these outcomes,” he added, as WFP urgently seeks $130 million to sustain food and nutrition operations through the end of the year.

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World News in Brief: Violence in Haiti, rising insecurity in DR Congo, expert panel on nuclear war

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Displaced Haitians are dispersed among the 250 active displacement sites across the country, most of which are informal. Just over a fifth of these sites are managed by humanitarian organizations, meaning that many are living in precarious conditions.  

In June alone, more than 200 alerts were reported across displacement sites, over 80 per cent of which were related to essential needs such as lack of water, food, shelter or healthcare.

OCHA noted that nearly 1.3 million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, the highest number ever recorded in the country due to violence.

Constrained UN response

The UN and partners have supported more than 113,000 displaced Haitians this year, providing essential services such as water, shelter, sanitation and healthcare.

The humanitarian response is severely constrained by limited funding and persistent insecurity, hampering humanitarian access to the most affected areas and delaying the delivery of aid. 

Despite the challenges, the agency continues to work closely with Haitian authorities and humanitarian partners to coordinate relief efforts and mobilise additional resources to support displaced communities. 

DR Congo: Ongoing violence in the east drives displacement, impedes aid delivery

Ongoing violence in North and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to claim the lives of civilians and to trigger new displacement. 

In North Kivu, UN partners on the ground in Rutshuru and Lubero territories reported that fighting between M23 and other armed groups was ongoing until Tuesday, resulting in eight civilian deaths and 42,500 displaced people as of earlier this week. 

Since early July, heavy clashes between M23 and other armed groups in South Kivu have also persisted, as local partners said the fighting has displaced at least 37,000 people from their homes. 

Aid access restrictions 

The surge in violence is making it harder for humanitarians to deliver assistance to vulnerable communities. 

While partners and teams on the ground are doing their best to maintain services for those affected, access restrictions and severe funding shortages pose significant obstacles. 

A humanitarian convoy coordinated by OCHA along the road between the provincial capital Bukavu and the city of Uvira, primarily planned for this Friday, has been postponed due to a lack of security guarantees on that route. 

Many UN partners on the ground are forced to scale back their operations, disrupting essential services for those in need. 

OCHA called on the international community to take urgent action to address these severe funding gaps and avert a humanitarian tragedy. 

New panel to examine the effects of a nuclear war

The UN Secretary-General has appointed an independent scientific panel of 21 experts to examine the physical and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale in the days, weeks and decades following such an event.

The creation of the panel, mandated by a General Assembly resolution, comes at a time when nuclear guardrails are being eroded and “the risk of nuclear war is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday during the daily media briefing from Headquarters in New York. 

The panelists will seek input from a wide range of stakeholders – including international and regional organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), civil society and affected communities. 

Members will hold their first meeting in September and will submit a final report to the General Assembly in 2027. 

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Displacement, poverty and insecurity fueling violence against women in Gaza

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In the past three months, a third of Gaza’s population (714,000 people) have been forced to move once again, separating families and dismantling local support systems.

Women and girls are bearing a heavy burden, fearing for their lives on the streets – at delivery points, and in overcrowded, makeshift shelters that lack privacy and security – as many sleep in the open.

“Women have experienced immense loss, including the death or imprisonment of relatives. Looking for water, living without any privacy, and constantly worrying – it’s exhausting,” one case worker told UNFPA.  

Many young girls are also being pushed into child labour and forced marriage in efforts to cope with devastating hunger.

Suhair who works at a safe space for women and girls in Gaza’s central Deir El-Balah Governorate.

Safe spaces in big demand

In response to this crisis, on Wednesday, UNFPA reported a sharp increase in victims seeking help at their safe spaces, which provide shelter and psychological support.

However, according to the women working there – many of whom are also displaced, conditions are extremely difficult, and there are far too few facilities for the number of women and children in need, making it difficult to reach those most at risk.

For instance, displacement orders have disrupted services and caused providers to lose essential equipment and files, forcing them to restart operations from scratch.  

Even as staff receive accounts of abuse, incidents remain vastly underreported due to stigma, fear of retaliation, and the collapse of health and justice systems.

“Despite all the difficulties, I continue to support abused women and girls,” said Asmaa, who works at a UNFPA-supported safe space in Gaza and has been displaced ten times since the war began.

Severe supply and fuel shortages

Fuel shortages are crippling critical infrastructure across Gaza. The UN has warned that humanitarian operations may collapse entirely, and an estimated 80 per cent of health facilities are expected to run out of fuel in the coming days.

As UNFPA attempts to shift to remote support, fuel shortages have triggered telecommunications blackouts, cut off survivor hotlines and made remote assistance largely inaccessible.

Since the blockade was imposed on 7 March, no agency supplies have entered Gaza, leaving essential items such as menstrual hygiene kits severely depleted.

Due to these shortages, three UNFPA safe spaces have closed, while the remaining 14 are functioning at severely limited capacity.

Despite the many challenges, the reproductive health agency and its case workers continue to try their best to help women and girls. “We feel the urgent needs of women and recognise the importance of supporting them. A small effort can make a big difference in their lives,” one caseworker stressed.

© UNFPA/Women’s Affairs Centre

Salma, left, is a mother of four and gender-based violence case manager in Khan Younis.

 

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Yemen: Nearly half the population facing acute food insecurity in some southern areas

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Yemen remains trapped in a prolonged political, humanitarian and development crisis, after enduring years of conflict between government forces and Houthi rebels, with populations in the south of the country now facing a growing food insecurity crisis.

A partial update released Monday by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system – which ranks food insecurity from Phase 1 to famine conditions, or Phase 5 – paints a grim picture.

Starting in May 2025, around 4.95 million people have been facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse (Phase 3+), including 1.5 million facing emergency-level food insecurity (Phase 4).

These numbers mark an increase of 370,000 people suffering from severe food insecurity compared to the period from November 2024 to February 2025.

Further deterioration

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that “looking ahead, the situation [was] expected to deteriorate further,” with 420,000 people potentially falling into crisis-level food insecurity or worse.

This would bring the total number of severely food-insecure people in southern governorate areas to 5.38 million – more than half the population.

Multiple compounded crises – such as sustained economic decline, currency depreciation in southern governorates, conflict, and increasingly severe weather – are driving food insecurity in Yemen.

High-risk areas

Amid Yemen’s growing food crisis, humanitarian agencies including WFP, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are reorienting their efforts towards high-risk areas, delivering integrated support across food security, nutrition, sanitation, health, and protection to maximise life-saving impact.

“The fact that more and more people in Yemen don’t know where their next meal will come from is extremely concerning at a time when we are experiencing unprecedented funding challenges,” said Siemon Hollema, Deputy Country Director of WFP in Yemen.

Immediate support needed

WFP, UNICEF and FAO are urgently calling for sustained and large-scale humanitarian and livelihood assistance to prevent communities from falling deeper into food insecurity, and to ensure that the UN “can continue to serve the most vulnerable families that have nowhere else to turn,” he said.

Internally displaced persons, low-income rural households, and vulnerable children are particularly affected, and are now facing increased vulnerability, as approximately 2.4 million children under the age of five and 1.5 million pregnant and lactating women are currently suffering from acute malnutrition.

The situation is dire, but with urgent support, “we can revitalise local food production, safeguard livelihoods, and move from crisis to resilience building, ensuring efficiency and impact,” said FAO Representative in Yemen, Dr. Hussain Gadain.

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Syrians face staggering needs amid insecurity and healthcare crisis

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Wrapping up a visit to the country, Edem Wosornu, who heads operations and advocacy for the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said that she could “feel the momentum for change” on the ground after years of suffering and hardship under the Assad regime ended with its overthrow last December.

But formidable challenges remain as 16.5 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance and protection, and needs are “staggering”.

Speaking from Gaziantep, a humanitarian hub in Türkiye just across the Syrian border, Ms. Wosornu noted an “encouraging trend of returns” since last December.

Over one million internally displaced people have come back to their areas of origin, she said, and more than half a million refugees have returned from neighbouring countries according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Devastated homes and opportunities

The OCHA official cited insecurity, damaged homes, inadequate services, lack of livelihood opportunities and the threat of unexploded ordnance as “key barriers” preventing people returning.

“People say, first and foremost they want security,” she stressed.

While the level of hostilities in the country has subsided, Ms. Wosornu said, localized tensions and clashes remain a “major concern”.

Remnants of heavy fighting pose a continued threat to civilians, said Dr Altaf Musani, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director of Health Emergencies.

He pointed to at least 909 casualties from unexploded ordnance since December 2024, including some 400 deaths – a majority of them women and children.

“We’re starting to see the admission rates and consultation rates in emergency rooms increase… Children and women, going about their daily life, trying to get water, trying to get food, trying to rebuild,” are walking through agricultural land, roads and rivers where unexploded munitions could be hiding, he said.

Camp residents at highest risk

Diseases, such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, are spreading, Dr. Musani said, stressing that more than 1,444 suspect cases of cholera and seven associated deaths have been recorded.

“This is particularly in Latakia and Aleppo, particularly around displacement camps,” he said.

“We know that when cholera gets hold in camps, it can serve as a brush fire, increasing both morbidity and mortality.”

The WHO official warned that more than 416,000 children in Syria are at risk from severe malnutrition and that more than half of children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition are not receiving treatment.

“From a public health standpoint, we need to be able to watch that risk and intervene and save those children,” he said.

Boys play in an informal camp in Syria.

Pregnancy dangers

Dr. Musani also noted that half of the maternity hospitals in northwest Syria have suspended operations since September 2024 owing to financial cuts, which humanitarians are “witnessing globally” but which are “really apparent” in Syria.

Underfunding of the humanitarian operation in Syria is already severe. Earlier this week, OCHA’s Coordination Division head, Ramesh Rajasingham, told the Security Council that out of the $2 billion required for the UN and its partners to reach eight million of the most vulnerable people from January through June 2025, only 10 per cent has been received.

The country’s cash-strapped health facilities face a lack of skilled workers and equipment, said WHO’s Dr. Musani. The war had pushed some 50 to 70 per cent of the health workforce to leave the country in search of other opportunities, and the health infrastructure is in dire need of investment.

The WHO official noted that for the health system – the “heartbeat of the nation” – the sanctions imposed on the country during the Assad regime had resulted in a lack of much-needed upgrades, compromising the purchase of new MRI machines, CT scanners, laboratory equipment and software upgrades.

Over the past two weeks, both the United States and the European Union have moved to lift the sanctions. OCHA’s Ms. Wosornu expressed hope that thanks to this development “we’ll see the impact on goods and services, on the cost of doing operations in the country, on the ability to move goods quicker into the country”.

But “it will take time”, she added. “I believe the people of Syria are hopeful that this will change their everyday lives.”

Another year, another rise in food insecurity – including famine

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It is the first time since 2017 that a famine has been declared anywhere on Earth.

In the 20 months since the war between rival militaries erupted, 13 million Sudanese have been forcibly displaced and over 30.4 million are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.

The inhabitants of the Zamzam camp, like others in the Darfur region, have once again been displaced as extreme violence permeates every corner of the country.

In short, Sudan has quickly become one of the most severe food insecurity crises in history.

‘Scar’ of hunger

But in a year when the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity increased for the sixth consecutive year, Sudan is far from the only place marked by what the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the “scar” of hunger.

According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, which was released Friday, over 295.3 million people in the 53 countries and territories selected for the report faced acute food insecurity, a number which amounts to 22.6 per cent of the population analysed.

The report “is another unflinching indictment of a world dangerously off-course,” the UN chief said.

‘A failure of humanity’

The report identified 36 countries and territories which have had prolonged food crises, with 80 per cent of their inhabitants facing high levels of food insecurity every year since 2016.

Moreover, the number of people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, as determined by the IPC standards, doubled between 2023 and 2024.

“After years of recurring emergencies in the same contexts, it’s clear that business-as-usual is not working,” the report concluded.

For the first time, the annual report also provided data on nutrition, estimating that 37.7 million children aged 6-59 months experienced acute malnutrition in 26 countries.

Numbers like this do not emerge randomly, nor do they emerge in a vacuum. Rather, the report notes that this level of worldwide food insecurity is the result of multiple, intertwined factors.

“No region is immune, with crises overlapping and interacting, eroding decades of development gains and leaving people unable to recover,” the report said.

More than a systems failure

Increased conflict was one of the driving causes for increasing food insecurity in 2024, specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, the Sudan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Palestine – the Gaza Strip.

Gaza experienced the highest share of its population facing food insecurity, with 100 per cent of its inhabitants facing acute food shortages in 2024. Continued aid blockages since March 2025 have only worsened this insecurity.

The report also underlined the role that climate change plays in food shortages, pointing specifically to changing weather patterns which have impacted agriculture.

For example, the food situation in Sudan was worsened by low rainfall in 2024 while other parts of Southern Africa such as Namibia experienced crop failures due to flooding.

War, climate, economic shocks

Economic shocks, including inflation and projected trade wars, also played a large role in worsening food insecurity crises, especially in places like Syria where long-term systemic instabilities increased vulnerabilities to economic shocks.

The Secretary General emphasized, however, that food insecurity at this level cannot simply be explained by one cause.

“This is more than a failure of systems – it is a failure of humanity,” he said.

New strategies, fewer funds

Recent funding shortages are projected to further exacerbate abilities to track and deal with food insecurity with funding for food-based humanitarian initiatives expected to drop by 45 percent. 

Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that the funding shortages are impacting every aspect of food distribution, from decreasing the amount of food WFP can provide and the funding for transport to remote areas.

“As things stand, I do not know if we will be able to keep our planes in the sky,” Ms. McCain said.

Because recent funding cuts will negatively impact efforts to provide aid, the report underlined the importance of finding “cost-efficient” strategies which do more to invest in long-term community resilience and capacity development.

“[Addressing the root causes of food insecurity] requires better alignment of humanitarian and development investments, and a shift from treating food crises as seasonal shocks to confronting them as systemic failures,” the report said.

The UN Pact for the Future agreed in September 2024 dealt in part with the question of food insecurity in the 21st century, advocating for more resilient, inclusive and sustainable food systems.

Building on this, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is advocating for expanded investment in sustainable agriculture, which is four times more cost-effective than direct food assistance but only accounts for three percent of  humanitarian funds.

“At FAO, we know that agriculture is one of the most powerful yet underused tools we have to curb food insecurity … Agriculture can be the answer,” said Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO’s Office of Emergency and Resilience.

Hunger is ‘indefensible’

In his video message on the report, the Secretary-General said that the Second UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake, which will be held in July in Addis Ababa, is an opportunity for the international community to work collaboratively towards addressing the challenges laid out in the GRFC report.

“Hunger in the 21st century is indefensible. We cannot respond to empty stomachs with empty hands and turned backs,” he said. 

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