More than 40 million people in East Africa face acute food insecurity

The number of people in East Africa experiencing acute food insecurity has almost tripled over the past 10 years, from 13.9 million to 40.3 million. It's from sb.by.

According to TASS, the Kenyan newspaper The Star, citing a regional report submitted in Nairobi by the Intergovernmental Development Organization (IGAD), indicated that in 2026, 34% of the surveyed population of six countries – Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – faced food shortages.

- Today, we face a stark reality: more than 40 million people in the IGAD region have high levels of acute food insecurity, said Mohamed Abdi Ware, deputy executive secretary of the organization.

They are families who lack food, farmers who have lost their livelihoods, and children suffering from malnutrition.

Sudan remains the biggest food crisis, with 19.5 million people, or 41% of the population surveyed. In South Sudan, the figure is 55%. Nearly 6.5 million people, or 33% of the population, are hungry in Somalia, and 4.1 million in the arid areas of Kenya. IGAD estimates that more than 9 million children aged six months to five years in six countries need treatment for acute malnutrition, including 2.3 million who are severely malnourished.

The main causes of this tragedy are armed conflict, extreme weather events, economic shocks and forced displacement of people. The situation is worsened by the reduction of funding for humanitarian programs. IGAD called on countries in the region to move from responding to crises to preventing them, develop early warning systems and increase investment in agriculture, livestock and water infrastructure. UN warns of possible climate impacts on 49 million people due to El Niño