Justicia Shipena
Africa is bearing the greatest burden of conflict-driven hunger, the United Nations (UN) Security Council heard at its high-level debate on food insecurity in New York on Monday.
FAO chief economist Máximo Torero said the continent accounts for nearly half of the world’s undernourished population and is at the centre of a worsening hunger-conflict crisis.
Torero said 307 million Africans lack sufficient food out of 673 million hungry people globally.
He said these numbers represent children whose growth is stunted, families forced to leave their homes and countries under strain.
He told the council that hunger has become both a driver and a consequence of conflict, with violence, climate shocks and reduced humanitarian funding pushing millions into deeper need.
He said food shortages weaken social cohesion, crop losses damage local economies and global food price spikes trigger unrest.
He cited evidence demonstrating a strong correlation between social unrest in poorer countries and urban centres, high international food prices and volatility.
Torero described FAO’s work in fragile settings over the past two decades, noting that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, first developed in Somalia in 2004, now guides food security analysis in more than 30 countries, including South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.
Together with the Cadre Harmonisé used in West Africa and the Sahel, these systems cover nearly 50 countries and inform more than US$6 billion in humanitarian assistance each year.
He said famine confirmations in Sudan in December 2024 and November 2025 and in Gaza in August 2025 marked the first time conflict-driven famine had been declared more than once in a single year.
He emphasised the issuance of early warnings prior to the onset of famine, stating that waiting for a formal declaration before taking action is too late.
“Africa is at the epicentre of this crisis,” he said, adding that many of the continent’s most fragile states face overlapping pressures from conflict, climate shocks and high food prices.
He said the link between hunger and instability is clear.
“Where there is hunger, there will be unrest. Where there is resilience, there can be peace.”
UN deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed told the Council that conflict and hunger are reinforcing each other in some of the world’s worst crises.
She said Sierra Leone understands the issue because it has lived through conflict’s impact.
“War destroys more than infrastructure; it destroys the ability to feed your children,” she said.
She said fighting destroys fields, markets and roads, while hunger fuels desperation, displacement and instability.
She said the council cannot secure peace where people are starving or maintain security where hunger drives conflict.
Mohammed said armed conflict is driving acute food insecurity in 14 of 16 global hunger hotspots.
Last year, 295 million people faced acute hunger, an increase of 14 million and 1.9 million faced catastrophic hunger. Sudan remains the world’s largest hunger crisis, with violence pushing famine across Darfur and Kordofan.
Famine was confirmed in Gaza in August.
Millions in Haiti, Yemen, the Sahel and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remain trapped in a cycle of hunger and conflict.
She said conflict shocks cross borders, noting that the war in Europe disrupted grain exports and pushed food crises across Africa, Latin America and Asia.
She said food was being used as a weapon through starvation tactics, the destruction of farms and markets, blockades and trade disruptions.
“The mechanics are devastating and a violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.
She highlighted the scale of global military spending compared to the cost of ending hunger, saying the world spent $21.9 trillion on defence over the past decade, while ending it by 2030 would cost $93 billion per year.
Mohammed warned that climate change intensified hunger through floods, droughts and unpredictable seasons.
She shared examples from her time as Nigeria’s environment minister, where shrinking water sources around Lake Chad worsened insecurity and deepened inequality.
She said ceasefires and humanitarian pauses protect food systems and allow recovery.
UN assistant secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya said new evidence from the Global Network Against Food Crises shows that conflict-induced hunger is worsening.
Msuya said women are especially affected, often going without food to feed their families. She stressed that international humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians and protects objects vital to survival.
She warned that blocking humanitarian access leads to spikes in hunger and malnutrition.
The last time the Council held a high-level debate focused on the conflict–food insecurity link was in August 2023.
