Africa’s food security is under constant threat, with approximately 307 million people, or a little over 20% of the continent’s population, facing hunger according to the FAO’s 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition report. This is an increase from 19% in 2022 and 17.4% in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and prior to 2015.
Conflict-stricken South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, and Congo are among the most food-insecure, with some facing emergency levels.
The hunger crisis is being fueled by climate change, economic inequality, and conflicts that are disrupting agriculture and supply chains, thus causing food price inflation. The situation is being further fueled by shrinking humanitarian aid for Africa’s food initiatives supported by the World Food Programme (WFP). Food insecurity on the continent is also causing malnutrition and increasing child mortality, with over 64 million children acutely malnourished in Africa as of 2024.
In 2015, world leaders set the Zero Hunger Sustainable Development Goal to be achieved by 2030, but despite the efforts of African nations towards achieving this, the continent is not on track to accomplish this. In East Africa, at least 69 million people had experienced acute food crises as of January 2025, while at least 40 million people in Central and West Africa faced hunger in 2024, with predictions estimating that this number will surge.
As Africa’s food security landscape faces soaring hunger levels and shrinking humanitarian aid, this DevelopmentAid article explores the drivers of food insecurity and the trends that will shape its future.
Trends in Africa’s food security landscape
The following trends indicate the current food security state in Africa, revealing a sharp rise in hunger levels, malnutrition, waning food aid, and food price inflation.
🔹 Rising hunger levels in Africa
Africa is experiencing a worsening hunger crisis, as the number of undernourished people surged from approximately 282 million in 2022 to more than 307 million in 2024, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. However, according to the African Center of Strategic Studies (ACSS) 2024 report, close to 163 million Africans faced acute food insecurity levels, with the number tripling in the last five years. Since the 2015 release of the 2030 SDG Agenda, hunger victims have soared by 113 million in 2025, illustrating the rapid rise of Africa’s food emergency.
The threat of an imminent hunger crisis is due to its widespread nature. In more than 23 out of 54 African nations, at least 10% of populations faced acute hunger crises in 2024, which is double the number in 2019.
In East Africa, almost 62 million people faced an acute hunger crisis in 2024. In East, South, West, and Central African nations, more than 10% of populations faced acute food insecurity (Fig. 1). Central Africa has the largest share of acute food insecurity, which is impacting over 19% of its population.
Figure 1: Africa’s regional food insecurity trends
Source: Africa Center for Strategic Studies
🔹 Waning food aid programs
The 2025 aid cuts by major donors such as the U.S., the UK, and Germany are undermining nutrition and emergency food initiatives across developing African nations. In 2025, the WFP faces a serious funding shortage, with resources reducing by 34% compared to 2024. In Africa, the WFP faces a financial gap of over US$620 million, which could compromise the agency’s ability to reach millions of recipients who are in need. This shortfall will force the WFP to reduce food aid which will impact almost 17 million people compared to the nearly 80 million who were assisted in 2024. Generally, at least 11 nations globally could see more than 500,000 people deprived of food aid, with more than half of the countries being in Africa (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Projected drop in WFP food assistance coverage
Source: World Food Program 2025 Report
🔹 Child malnutrition on the rise
In its 2024 report, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that approximately 64 million children under 5 years of age in Africa were facing extreme food poverty. The children encountering this level of hunger crisis have a 50% likelihood of suffering from severe malnutrition. In 2024, in Africa’s Sahel region, over 6.9 million children under 5 were impacted by malnutrition, which is 2.6 million above the number recorded in 2023. According to Gilles Fagninous, UNICEF’s Sahel region coordinator, 1.4 million of the affected children suffered from acute malnutrition, with a higher risk of mortality.
According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) from the Global Network Against Food Crises, the East Africa region had more than 12.2 million children who were acutely malnourished and almost 3 million severely acutely malnourished in 2024 (Fig. 3).
Fig 3: Number of East African children aged from 6 to 59 months suffering from acute malnutrition
Source: 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC)
In Africa’s West and the Sahel regions, there are more than 11.9 million acutely malnourished children, the second largest share on the continent. More than 8.4 million of these are relatively acutely malnourished, while 3.5 million are severely acutely malnourished (Fig.4).
Figure 4: Children with acute malnutrition in West and Sahel Africa
Source: Global Report on Food Crises in 2025
🔹 Drivers of food insecurity in Africa
- Conflict and displacement: Conflicts are destroying agricultural lands, displacing populations, and disrupting food supply chains. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies 2024 report, 80% of the 163 million Africans experiencing extreme food insecurity live in conflict-impacted nations. This includes almost 840,000 people facing famine in Mali, South Sudan, and Sudan.
- Extreme climate events: Inadequate rainfall, droughts, floods, and other climate events are disrupting rain-fed agriculture in drought-prone regions like the Horn of Africa. Recent research predicts that climate change is expected to reduce crop production, increase food costs, limit calorie availability, and increase child malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Economic shocks and inflation: Currency devaluations, increasing inflation, and trade wars are seriously impacting food access in West and Central Africa. The prices of staple grains are soaring across Africa from about 10% to over 100% compared to the five-year average. According to the WFP, food price inflation is being caused by currency inflation and increasing transport and fuel prices, thus causing an overdependence on limited imported foods.
Wrap Up
Africa’s food security is worsening, making it one of the most pressing challenges to the continent’s sustainable development. Recent trends and statistics show that soaring hunger levels are affecting at least 307 million Africans. Millions of children in conflict-affected regions are also facing acute malnutrition. This severe situation is being worsened by shrinking humanitarian funding for food programs, leaving millions vulnerable to starvation. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 – Zero Hunger by 2030 necessitates urgent investment in climate-smart agriculture, innovation in local food systems, and the mobilization of domestic resources in this post-aid period.
