Food Crisis and Related Risk Factors

Much has been said and written of late about the linkages between conflict and hunger. There is good reason for this: 65% of the world’s acutely food-insecure people live in conflict-affected countries. Typically, two claims are made about the conflict-hunger linkage. First, that conflict breeds hunger. This claim is supported by so much evidence that in 2018 the United Nations adopted Resolution 2417 recognizing the direct impacts of armed conflict on food insecurity and strongly condemning the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of warfare in conflict situations.

As the conflict in Sudan enters its twentieth month, acute food insecurity in the country is spreading rapidly. According to a new alert from the IPC Famine Review Committee, Famine conditions have been identified in five areas of the country, with an additional five areas expected to face Famine between December 2024 and March 2025. As many as 17 additional areas are at risk of Famine, and half the country’s population—24.6 million people—is currently experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

Millions of people across 22 countries and territories may be pushed into acute food insecurity by May 2025, according to the latest FAO-WFP Hunger Hotspots Report. Ongoing and increasing conflict in many areas of the world, along with economic hardships and extreme weather caused by climate change and the La Niña phenomenon, are behind this significant increase in both the magnitude and the severity of acute food insecurity.

Within a few weeks of marking the first anniversary of the Hamas-Israel war, the worst possible food security scenario is playing out in Gaza.

With conflict in the Middle East now escalating into Lebanon and beyond, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to face dire food security conditions. One year has passed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, triggering the Israeli military retaliation and war that have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and devastated the livelihoods of Gaza’s population of over 2 million.