How Food Insecurity Is Rising Worldwide: Conflict, Climate & Aid Crises

Introduction

We live in a time when hunger is no longer just a plight of isolated regions—it has become a global crisis. The number of people suffering acute food insecurity (meaning they can’t reliably access enough safe, nutritious food) has been climbing for years. According to recent reports, over 295 million people across 53 countries and territories experienced this level of hunger in 2024—that’s an increase of around 13.7 million from the year before.

In simple terms: it’s getting worse.

What’s driving this surge? The major culprits are three intertwined forces: armed conflict, climate extremes, and weakened humanitarian aid / economic shocks. In this blog, we’ll unpack how each of these factors works, show how they overlap and amplify each other, and explore why this matters not just for vulnerable countries but for the global community.

The Three Big Drivers

1. Conflict and Displacement

Armed conflict remains the single largest driver of food insecurity. According to the latest analysis, conflict and insecurity were the primary cause in almost 20 countries and contributed to over 140 million people being pushed into acute food insecurity in 2024.

When war breaks out:

• Agriculture stops. Farmers are displaced or their fields become battlegrounds.

• Supply routes collapse. Food can’t be transported safely, markets shut down, prices soar.

• Humanitarian access is reduced. Aid agencies can’t deliver or are forced out.

• Displacement multiplies vulnerability. Internally displaced people or refugees often lose their land, livelihoods, and savings.

Examples

• Sudan: The civil war since 2023 has decimated harvests, disrupted supply chains, and forced millions from their homes.

• Gaza Strip: Conflict, blockade, limited aid access—creating conditions of near-famine in some zones.

Conflict doesn’t just kill people directly—it also starves them of food, of hope, of future.And once conflict starts, it often locks in food crisis for years.

2. Climate & Weather Extremes

Climate and weather shocks are no longer far-off threats—they are happening now, and they hit the poorest hardest. Droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extremes destroy crops, kill livestock, and wreck food systems.

Key points:

• The “global food system” is fragile: when one region suffers a shock, ripple effects can occur elsewhere.

• According to recent data, weather extremes were a main driver of acute food insecurity in 18 countries, affecting about 77 million people in one year.

• With phenomena like La Niña expected to persist through early 2025, risks of flooding and crop failures in sensitive zones are elevated.

Climate shocks tend to coincide with conflict and economic stress, creating “perfect storms” of hunger.

3. Economic Shocks, Aid Shortfalls & Systemic Pressure

Even without open war or devastating droughts, food insecurity can surge when economies collapse, aid is cut, or global supply systems are stressed.

• Economic shocks: inflation, currency collapse, rising food/fertiliser/fuel costs all reduce people’s ability to buy food.

• Aid shortfalls: The World Food Programme (WFP) warned of a massive shortfall in 2025, with 58 million people facing extreme hunger unless urgent food-aid funding is secured.

• Systems vulnerabilities: Many countries depend heavily on food imports, fertiliser imports, or external support. When global trade is disrupted (for example, by war in Ukraine), these dependencies become severe liabilities.

  
  

All three drivers often converge in a given country or region—creating hunger that is multi-layered and difficult to reverse.

Why the Figures Are So Alarming

• In 2024, more than 295 million people were facing acute hunger across 53 countries – approximately 22.6% of the assessed populations.

• The number of people living in the worst hunger category (IPC Phase 5, “Catastrophe”) more than doubled.

• Conflict-driven hunger is rising fastest. For example, the GRFC report finds: “Conflict remains the main driver pushing 139 million people in 24 countries/territories into acute food insecurity.”

Putting these together, the scale is hard to grasp—but the trend is unmistakable: hunger is deepening, spreading, and reaching new levels of severity.

How the Drivers Interact: A Vicious Cycle

These forces don’t operate in isolation. Rather, they create reinforcing loops.

• Conflict → displacement → crop failure → reliance on imports → economic shock → hunger.

• Climate shock → harvest loss → income loss for farmers → high food prices → malnutrition.

• Economic collapse → ability to import food declines → cheaper food unavailable → aid needed → if aid is cut, crisis deepens.

For instance: In Sudan the civil war destroyed harvests; the climate stress added crop failures; aid access was compromised; food prices soared. All three drivers were in play simultaneously.Similarly, in Gaza the blockade (conflict/aid access), war damage (conflict/climate adjacency), and aid system breakdown created “famine-risk” conditions.

Spotlight on Global Hotspots

Sudan

One of the most severe cases. Conflict since 2023 has devastated agriculture, reduced cereal harvests by roughly half, and made millions dependent on aid.

Yemen

More than 17 million people are going hungry, including over a million children under five suffering acute malnutrition. Aid shortfall is major.

Gaza Strip

With multiple blockades, conflict and severe aid disruption, many residents are at “catastrophe” levels of hunger.

Haiti, Mali, South Sudan, etc.

Each of these countries combines conflict, economic fragility, climate stress, and weak food systems. The 2024-25 reports list them among the most at-risk.

Why Should We Care?

• Ethical imperative: Everyone deserves sufficient, safe, nutritious food. A world where hundreds of millions go hungry is morally untenable.

• Global stability: Hunger can lead to political instability, migration flows, and conflict spill-over. The UN has warned that “empty bellies fuel unrest.”

• Economics: A malnourished generation is less productive; collapse of agriculture in multiple regions affects global food markets and prices.

• Interconnectedness: Food crises in one region can ripple globally via supply chains, trade links, climate feedbacks and migration.

In other words: even if you don’t live in a “food-crisis” country, you are not insulated from the consequences.

What Needs to Be Done

Short-Term Emergency Responses

• Scale-up humanitarian aid: Food shipments, nutrition for children, emergency cash transfers. Cuts in funding must be reversed.

• Protect food access in conflict zones: Negotiations for humanitarian corridors, safe access for aid distribution.

• Support local production: Even in crisis zones, efforts to support farmers, livestock keepers, irrigation can mitigate hunger.
  

Medium and Long-Term Strategies

• Build resilient food systems: Diversified crops, climate-smart agriculture, local storage and distribution infrastructure.

• Conflict prevention and resolution: Because conflict is the greatest driver of hunger, investment in peace-building is also food security investment.

• Economic strengthening: Reducing dependency on imports, stabilizing local currencies, raising purchasing power of vulnerable households.

• Climate adaptation: Forecasting systems, drought/flood resistant crops, water management, pest control.

• Better funding and coordination: Aid systems must be predictable, adequately financed, and responsive. The 2025 shortfalls are revealing how fragile the system is.

  
  

Policy & Global Governance

• Countries and global institutions must recognise food security as both a humanitarian and strategic issue.

• Trade policies, subsidies, climate finance, conflict prevention—all tie into food stability.

• Data and early-warning systems must be strengthened: better information allows quicker action.
  

Challenges & Complexities

• Access vs. availability: Even where food exists, people may not be able to reach it due to conflict, infrastructure, price or displacement.

• Aid dependency: Many regions are so dependent on external aid that when it fails, hunger explodes.

• Climate uncertainty: Weather patterns are becoming more erratic, making planning difficult.

• Compounded crises: A region might face drought, plus conflict, plus economic collapse—making solutions much harder to implement.

• Limited resources: Funding, political will and capacity are all stretched. The global system is not currently equipped to respond at the scale needed.
  

The Take-away

The world’s hunger crisis is no longer just about “too little food” in remote places—it’s about a systemic breakdown in food security driven by conflict, climate and economic stress. More people than ever are facing life-threatening hunger, and the problem is not isolated—it affects us all.Addressing it requires urgent action (for lives being lost now) and structural change (so the same patterns don’t repeat). Conflict must be prevented, climate shocks managed, aid systems reinforced, and food systems rebuilt to be resilient—not reactive.

If we fail, millions more will suffer. If we succeed, we protect not just vulnerable populations, but the stability and health of the global community.