Africa has overtaken Asia as the continent with the largest number of people experiencing hunger for the first time, according to a new United Nations report released on Tuesday.
The report, jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and four other UN agencies, revealed that 309 million people in Africa suffered from hunger in 2025, representing 20 per cent of the continent’s population.
In contrast, Asia recorded 292 million undernourished people, accounting for about six per cent of its population.
The UN said the figures mark a significant shift in the global hunger landscape, even as the overall number of people facing hunger worldwide continues to decline.
“The centre of gravity of hunger has shifted from Asia to Africa,” said David Laborde, Director of the Agrifood Economics Division at the FAO.
Laborde attributed Asia’s progress to sustained investments and policy efforts by countries such as China and India.
“Twenty-five years ago China still had a problem with hunger, but they solved it. India also faces challenges, but it is making strong efforts to address them,” he told AFP.
Globally, the share of the world’s population experiencing hunger fell from 8.6 per cent in 2022 to 7.8 per cent in 2025, reducing the number of undernourished people by approximately 43 million to 645 million.
Despite the improvement, the UN noted that global hunger levels remain above those recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also indicated that although hunger in Africa has risen steadily since 2017, preliminary estimates for 2025 suggest the trend may be beginning to improve.
Beyond hunger, Africa also faces the world’s highest levels of food affordability challenges. About 66.6 per cent of the continent’s population cannot afford a healthy diet—more than double the proportion recorded in Asia.
The UN agencies urged African governments to reform the animal-source food sector, describing it as the region’s costliest food category and a major barrier to healthy diets.
The report blamed worsening food insecurity on a combination of climate-related shocks and armed conflicts across the continent.
“Conflicts like the one in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo weigh heavily on people who can no longer access their land or have lost their source of income,” Laborde said.
The UN has previously warned that about 20 million people in Sudan are facing acute food insecurity because of the ongoing conflict, while continued instability in the Middle East threatens to push millions more into hunger.
Laborde added that although higher energy and fertiliser costs linked to global conflicts have so far had only a limited impact on food prices, the crisis remains far from over.
