Africa Overtakes Asia as World’s Hunger Hotspot —UN Report

News in Brief:

— A UN food security report reveals that Africa now has the highest number of hungry people globally, with 309 million affected.

— The agency warns that hunger reduction remains fragile and uneven, with rural communities, costly healthy diets and weak food systems continuing to undermine progress.

Africa has overtaken Asia as the region with the highest number of hungry people, as a new United Nations report shows that 309 million people on the continent were affected by hunger in 2025.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026) report says the figure represents 20 per cent of Africa’s population. It also marks the first time the continent has surpassed Asia in absolute numbers of hungry people.

The statement, jointly released by five UN specialised agencies, also shows that global hunger declined for a third straight year, although progress remains fragile and uneven. They estimate that 645 million people, or 7.8 per cent of the world’s population, experienced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 per cent in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2022.

Africa’s Worsening Hunger Situation

In 2025, hunger affected 309 million (20%) people in Africa, 292 million (6%) in Asia and 32 million (4.8%) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Effectively, the continent now has more hungry people than any other in the world, a position previously held by Asia.

It also warns that more than half of Africa’s population, or 56.6 per cent, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, underscoring the scale of the crisis beyond outright hunger.

The report further notes that the proportion of Africans unable to afford a healthy diet remains among the highest in the world, reflecting persistent barriers to access and affordability.

It also revealed that the continent recorded a pause in the prolonged increase in the hunger trend, where the share of the population facing hunger decreased from 20.3 per cent in 2024. Yet, this improvement did not translate into visible gains due to the growing population.  

The numbers highlight that food insecurity is especially severe in rural areas, where households are more exposed to poverty, poor infrastructure and weak market access. It adds that hunger trends in Africa are moving in the opposite direction from Asia and Latin America, where steady progress has been recorded in recent years.

Global Gains Remain Fragile

At the global level, the report offers cautious optimism. It indicates that 7.8 per cent of the world’s population faced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 per cent in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2023, showing three consecutive years of improvement.

Still, the UN agencies warn that the gains are not strong enough to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030. The report points to conflict in the Middle East, climate-related weather extremes, and reduced development assistance and humanitarian funding as risks that could reverse the progress made so far.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu added that the report proves that hunger is not inevitable, arguing that stronger economic policies, social protection and more resilient agrifood systems can bend the hunger curve.

Beyond hunger alone, the report says nearly one-third of the world’s population still cannot afford a healthy diet. It notes that food can become too expensive by the time costs from storage, processing, transport and retail are added, especially where cold-chain systems, energy supply and infrastructure remain weak.