According to the UN State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report presented today, 645 million people suffered from hunger last year. This represents a fall of 14 million in the number of people affected compared with 2024. For the first time since 2015, the proportion of people suffering from hunger has also fallen in Africa.

Lutz Depenbusch, Misereor’s nutrition expert, commented on the findings of the 2026 State of Food Insecurity in the World report:

“The fact that the number of people suffering from hunger has fallen slightly for the third year running is good news. Given the multiple crises, the trend in Africa is particularly positive. The figures show that progress is possible despite global challenges. And yet, the slow pace of improvement reflects missed opportunities. The scale of hunger is still greater than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the current rate, more than 500 million people will still be suffering from hunger in 2030. Child malnutrition, too, is declining only extremely slowly. When political will and joint efforts go hand in hand, significantly faster progress is possible – as the past has shown. Instead, however, we are witnessing an increasingly self-centred global political landscape, exemplified by the trade dispute initiated by the US and cuts to development aid. These political dynamics are holding back progress in the fight against hunger. Now there is a risk that the effects of the ongoing war in the Persian Gulf will coincide with an unusually severe El Niño weather phenomenon, further worsening the global food situation. This could be prevented if the international community – and with it the German Federal Government – were to stop treating hunger and poverty as niche issues to be addressed in politically more favourable times, and were to stop accepting these preventable deaths.”