Acute food insecurity in East Africa has more than tripled over the past decade, leaving 42 million people in urgent need of assistance this year, according to a new assessment by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
- •The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises highlights a worsening trend driven by conflict, climate shocks and economic instability, with Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya among the hardest hit.
- •In 2016, just 15 million people across the region were classified as facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, a figure which has now surged to over 40 million.
- •Aid agencies have warned of funding gaps, while rising displacement, an estimated 23.2 million people in the region are now uprooted, threatens to spill across borders and destabilize markets.
“Repeated shocks on top of structural vulnerabilities are eroding household resilience,” IGAD said in the report. The agency noted that while good rains in 2024 supported harvests in some areas, erratic rainfall and localized flooding erased gains in others.
Sudan now accounts for the world’s largest hunger crisis, with 24.6 million people,more than half the population analyzed, projected to face acute food shortages between December 2024 and May 2025. South Sudan has 7.7 million people in similar conditions, representing 57% of its population. Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands are also under pressure, with 2.8 million people, or 17% of the population in those regions, expected to face acute food insecurity by mid-year.
Across the Horn, 11.7 million people are already in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) conditions, while millions of children and pregnant women are acutely malnourished. IGAD warned the region is “not on track” to meet global 2030 hunger-reduction goals.
The worsening food crisis poses growing risks for governments already facing fiscal strain, donor fatigue and aid cuts.