Africa surpasses Asia with highest population facing hunger: UN
A new UN report indicates that Africa has surpassed Asia as the continent with the highest number of people facing hunger. While global hunger rates have slightly decreased, the report highlights a concerning rise in food insecurity across Africa.
Why it matters
This shift in the geography of global hunger underscores the urgent need for targeted agricultural and economic interventions in Africa.
Africa has for the first time become the continent with the largest number of people facing hunger, a UN report said Tuesday (July 21, 2026), as a growing number of Africans have faced undernourishment.
The UN's annual report on food security and nutrition found that there has been gradual improvement towards reducing hunger overall in recent years, but that progress has been uneven.
"The centre of gravity of hunger has shifted from Asia to Africa," said David Laborde, director of the agrifood economics division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"Twenty-five years ago China still had a problem with hunger but they solved them; India also has a problem but they are putting lots of effort into actively resolving it," he told AFP .
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