ROME, Italy: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday that nearly 14 million people in six crisis-hit countries face emergency levels of hunger due to drastic reductions in global humanitarian aid.
In its latest report, titled “A Lifeline at Risk”, the Rome-based agency said that cuts from major donors, including the United States, have left its operations severely underfunded.
The WFP projects a 40 percent decline in funding for 2025 — down to $6.4 billion from about $10 billion in 2024 — which it says could push millions closer to famine.
Countries facing ‘major disruptions’
The WFP said its food assistance programmes in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan are “currently facing major disruptions” and warned the situation would worsen by year-end.
“Across these six countries, 13.7 million people could be pushed from crisis (IPC Phase 3) to emergency (IPC Phase 4) hunger levels — just one step away from famine,” the agency said, referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale used to measure hunger.
The agency noted that global hunger has reached record levels, with 319 million people facing acute food insecurity, including 44 million at emergency levels.
‘Lifeline disintegrating before our eyes’
“WFP’s funding has never been more challenged,” said Executive Director Cindy McCain, warning that the humanitarian lifeline for millions was “disintegrating before our eyes.”
“We are at risk of losing decades of progress in the fight against hunger,” McCain said. “The gap between what WFP needs to do and what we can afford to do has never been larger.”
She added that even regions that had shown progress, such as the Sahel, where 500,000 people had been lifted out of aid dependence, were now facing “severe setbacks” due to funding shortfalls.
Impact of global aid cuts
According to the report, the United States — WFP’s largest donor — has reduced its contributions sharply under President Donald Trump’s administration, dropping from nearly $4.5 billion in 2024 to about $1.5 billion this year.
Other leading donors have also slashed their development and humanitarian budgets, further straining the UN’s ability to respond to global crises.
The WFP said the humanitarian system is under severe strain, with aid partners “pulling back from frontline locations” and creating a “vacuum” in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
The Lancet medical journal recently reported on the far-reaching consequences of these US aid cuts, describing them as a “major blow” to global health and food security operations.
Consequences in the field
The WFP report said that in Afghanistan, food assistance now reaches less than 10 percent of food-insecure households. In the DRC, only 600,000 people will receive food aid this month, down from a planned 2.3 million.
In Haiti, families are receiving only half of WFP’s standard monthly rations, while in South Sudan, expensive airdrops to famine-risk areas are under threat.
“Programme coverage has been slashed and rations cut,” the report said. “Life-saving assistance to households in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) is at risk, while preparedness for future shocks has dropped drastically.”
Global hunger reaches record levels
The WFP said the number of people classified as being “in famine or on the brink” has doubled in the past two years to 1.4 million across five countries.
Earlier this year, the UN formally declared a famine in Gaza, underscoring the growing scale of global hunger emergencies.
“The world is facing hunger issues on a scale never seen before – and the funds needed to help us respond are woefully insufficient,” McCain said.
She warned that rising hunger not only threatens lives but also undermines regional stability and forces mass displacement, exacerbating humanitarian crises worldwide.
“We are watching the lifeline for millions of people disintegrate before our eyes,” she said.
“Without urgent international support, the progress the world has made in fighting hunger could be lost within a single year.”
