Hunger

The number of people facing crisis levels of hunger in Zambia is projected to jump 72%, as anticipated El Niño drought and the conflict in the Middle East threaten to push more families into hunger.

Nine years after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled attacks and violence in Myanmar, an entire generation of Rohingya children has grown up in displacement, and many children know nothing but life inside the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh.

In a mountainous, hard to reach part of northern Afghanistan, Save the Children is the only healthcare provider for 10,000 people. The clinic sees over 100 patients every day, some of whom travel for two to three hours on foot to see doctors, nutrition nurses and midwives.

As World Breastfeeding Week begins, Save the Children and its partners in Gaza are diagnosing high rates of malnutrition in pregnant and breastfeeding women, with rates particularly bad in northern Gaza. Some mothers are resorting to feeding their children water mixed with ground chickpeas or tahini, while others are stopping breastfeeding earlier than they would prefer, due to difficulties and lack of support.

The number of children receiving treatment for the most dangerous form of malnutrition in Baidoa, south central Somalia, nearly tripled in six months, according to new figures from Save the Children’s stabilization centre in the region, warning over the country’s worsening drought and hunger crisis.

More than 74,000 children under five in Gaza will suffer acute malnutrition in the year to April 2027, according to new data, highlighting that the crisis remains catastrophic with children paying the highest price.

Children in Yemen are being plunged deeper into hunger as world leaders fail to fully re-open the Strait of Hormuz, said Save the Children, releasing a new market assessment showing how fuel and food prices have skyrocketed since the escalation in the Middle East region four months ago. 

Hunger in Madagascar is set to escalate dramatically later this year, with the number of people facing crisis levels projected to jump by 75% and about one in 10 children under five suffering or expected to suffer from acute malnutrition.

In this staff account, Shurouq shares the reality of Gaza’s worsening food crisis after 1,000 days of war. Families face soaring food prices, aid restrictions, destroyed farmland, extreme heat, and pests, making it increasingly difficult to access nutritious food and meet basic needs while struggling to survive daily.

Families and children in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state are surviving on leaves and water lilies as hunger surges towards famine levels in parts of the country following three months of escalating violence.