Key messages:

• As the global food security landscape and humanitarian response capacity undergoes significant change, large-scale food assistance needs persist across East Africa, parts of West and Southern Africa, conflict-affected areas of the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Haiti. Acute food insecurity is expected to increase between June and September in many geographies covered by FEWS NET. The scale and severity of acute food insecurity is highest in Sudan and Gaza, where exhaustive measures are urgently required to ensure multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance can prevent further loss of life. Concern is also high for South Sudan; Yemen; northern and southern Ethiopia; Somalia; Haiti; the eastern DRC; the Liptako-Gourma region in the Sahel; and northern Nigeria, where humanitarian food and nutrition assistance is critical to saving lives and protecting livelihoods. 

• Recent freezes and ongoing reductions of donor funding are forcing cuts to food, nutrition, and agricultural assistance programs. At the same time, the uncertainty of trade relationships has led to a downward revision in projections for global economic growth for the year, and there is concern that shifts in agricultural trade flows may place upward pressure on prices even though global commodity markets are well supplied. Amid local and regional conflict, economic, and weather shocks, these combined pressures are increasing the risk of acute food insecurity among many poor households worldwide. 

• Conflict remains the leading cause of acute food insecurity. Ongoing violence continues to displace millions, disrupt agricultural systems, and obstruct humanitarian assistance delivery. Sudan and Gaza are experiencing the most extreme levels of acute food insecurity due to prolonged, intense conflict and associated restrictions to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance. Elsewhere, violence and political instability are also driving high food assistance needs in South Sudan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, the Sahel, Ethiopia, and Somalia. 

• Economic instability in many of the countries monitored by FEWS NET is undermining access to food, particularly in import-dependent countries. The impacts are most pronounced in countries where conflict is a significant disruptor to trade flows and market functionality and has led to protracted macroeconomic crises, such as in Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, and Haiti. Despite a decline in global commodity prices since 2022, domestic food prices remain high due to inflation, currency depreciation, and localized supply chain constraints. These trends disproportionately affect poor households who rely on market purchases and strain government capacity to respond to increasing needs. 

• Weather shocks continue to threaten agricultural production in many rural livelihood zones. Although La Niña ended in March 2025 and atmospheric and oceanic conditions are currently normal, irregular rainfall, dry spells, and flooding are still negatively affecting crop and livestock production, agricultural labor demand, and associated household income in several regions. Weather-related reductions in farm productivity are of greatest concern in areas concurrently affected by conflict or recovering from prior historic weather events, such as in parts of South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.