
The UN says global hunger has hit a new high
The world is dangerously off course, comes the stark warning from the United Nations after it found that more than 295 million people faced acute hunger in 2024.
Fears are growing for the future as major donor countries are set to reduce funding this year.
Climate change and economic crises are affecting 96 million people in 18 countries, including Syria and Yemen.
Conflict and violence are the leading causes of the world's largest humanitarian crisis in Sudan, after two years of civil war.
In Gaza, Israel's blockade of all food, water and medicine has entered a third month, creating a manufactured crisis.
So is global food hunger a failure of systems – or a failure of humanity?
Presenter:
Guests:
Chris Gunness – Former director of communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Elise Nalbandian – Regional advocacy and campaign manager for Oxfam in Africa
Sara Hayat – Specialist in climate change law and policy

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Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
One in 67 people worldwide remains forcibly displaced: UNHCR report
At least 123.2 million people, or one in 67 individuals worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to a report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today. The number of displaced people has increased by seven million people, or 6 percent, compared with the end of 2023. This continues a 13-year trend which has seen a year-on-year increase in the number of displaced people globally. However, the UNHCR estimated that forced displacement fell in the first four months of this year, to 122.1 million by the end of April 2025. 'We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering. We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes,' said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo the 123.2 million total forcibly displaced, 73.5 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or other crises. This is an increase of 6.3 million compared with 2023. Internally displaced people (IDPs) account for 60 percent of the majority of those who have been forced to flee globally. In Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that about 90 percent of the population, or more than two million people, have been displaced by Israel's continuing assault. As of 2024, the number of refugees stood at 42.7 million, a decrease of 613,600 from the previous year. Of this number, 31 million are under the UNHCR's mandate, 5.9 million are Palestinian refugees under the mandate of UNRWA, and another 5.9 million need international protection. According to the UNHCR, the lower number of refugees in 2024 reflects lower estimates of Afghan and Syrian refugees and updated reporting on Ukrainian refugees. However, the number of Sudanese refugees increased by nearly 600,000 to 2.1 million. The number of asylum seekers – people seeking protection in another country due to persecution or fear of harm in their home country – waiting for a decision stood at 8.4 million, an increase of 22 percent from the previous year. This puts the number of displaced people globally at one in 67 1951, the UN established the Refugee Convention to protect the rights of refugees in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. In 1967, the convention was expanded to address displacement across the rest of the the Refugee Convention was born, there were 2.1 million refugees. By 1980, the number of refugees recorded by the UN surpassed 10 million for the first time. Wars in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s caused the number of refugees to double to 20 million by 1990. The number of refugees remained fairly consistent over the next two decades. However, the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States in 2001 and that of Iraq in 2003, together with the civil wars in South Sudan and Syria, resulted in refugee numbers exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021. The war in Ukraine, which started in 2022, led to one of the fastest-growing refugee crises since World War II, with 5.7 million people forced to flee Ukraine in less than a year. By the end of 2023, six million Ukrainians remained forcibly displaced. The number of IDPs has doubled in the past 10 years, with a steep incline since 2020. Conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has triggered the world's largest displacement crisis, with a total of 14.3 million Sudanese remaining displaced at the end of 2024. This was 3.5 million more people than 12 months prior. In 2024, more than one-third of all forcibly displaced people globally were Sudanese (14.3 million), Syrian (13.5 million), Afghan (10.3 million) or Ukrainian (8.8 million).In 2024, 1.6 million refugees returned to their home country. 'However, many of these refugees returned to Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan or Ukraine, despite the fragile situations in each,' Matthew Saltmarsh, UNHCR's media head, said. 'Returns to places in conflict or instability are far from ideal and often unsustainable.' In 2024, 8.2 million IDPs returned to their area of origin. The UNHCR estimates that nine in 10 refugees and IDPs returned to just eight countries, which included Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. 'Large IDP returns during the year were also registered in several countries that simultaneously saw significant new displacements, such as the DRC (2.4 million), Myanmar (378,000), Syria (514,000) or Ukraine (782,000),' Saltmarsh said.'Even amid the devastating cuts, we have seen some rays of hope over the last six months,' Grandi said. 'Nearly two million Syrians have been able to return home after over a decade uprooted. The country remains fragile, and people need our help to rebuild their lives again.'


Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Sudan's paramilitary RSF say they seized key zone bordering Egypt, Libya
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have said their fighters have seized a strategic zone on the border with Egypt and Libya, as the regular government-aligned army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), announced its withdrawal from the area. The announcements on Wednesday came a day after SAF accused forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar of launching a cross-border attack alongside the RSF, the first allegation of direct Libyan involvement in the Sudanese war. 'As part of its defensive arrangements to repel aggression, our forces today evacuated the triangle area overlooking the borders between Sudan, Egypt and Libya,' army spokesperson Nabil Abdallah said in a statement. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم القيادة العامة للقوات المسلحة تعميم صحفي الأربعاء ١١ يونيو ٢٠٢٥م في إطار ترتيباتها الدفاعية لصد العدوان، أخلت قواتنا اليوم منطقة المثلث المطلة علي الحدود بين السودان ومصر وليبيا. (نصر من الله وفتح قريب) مكتب الناطق الرسمي باسم القوات المسلحة General… — القوات المسلحة السودانية (@SudaneseAF) June 11, 2025Since April 2023, the brutal civil war has pitted SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF, in a bitter power struggle. In a statement on Wednesday, the RSF said its fighters had 'liberated the strategic triangle area', adding that army forces had retreated southward 'after suffering heavy losses'. SAF said on Tuesday that Haftar's troops, in coordination with the RSF, attacked its border positions in a move it called 'a blatant aggression against Sudan'. Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also accused the United Arab Emirates of backing the assault, describing it as a 'dangerous escalation' and a 'flagrant violation of international law'. It also described the latest clash as part of a broader foreign-backed conspiracy. Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, has long maintained close ties with both the United Arab Emirates and Cairo has supported Sudan's leadership under Burhan since the war began in April 2023, Khartoum has repeatedly accused the UAE of supplying the RSF with weapons, which the Emirati government has denied. Tensions between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi escalated in May after drone strikes hit the wartime capital of Port Sudan for the first time since the outbreak of the war. After the attacks, Sudan severed its diplomatic ties with the UAE and declared it an 'aggressor state'. Since the war began more than two years ago, multiple countries have been drawn in. It has effectively split Sudan in two, with SAF holding the centre, east and north, including the capital Khartoum, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including four million who fled abroad, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Efforts by international mediators to halt the fighting have so far failed, with violence continuing to escalate across the western Darfur region and the Kordofan region in the country's south.


Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Sudanese army accuses Libya's Haftar of joint border attack with RSF
The Sudanese army has accused the forces of eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar of attacking Sudanese border posts, the first time it has accused its northwestern neighbour of direct involvement in the country's civil war, now in its third year. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whom the military also accused of joint involvement in the recent attack, has drawn in multiple countries, while international attempts at bringing about peace have so far failed. Early in the war, Sudan had accused Haftar of supporting the RSF via weapons deliveries. It has long accused Haftar's ally the United Arab Emirates of supporting the RSF as well, including via direct drone strikes last month. The UAE denies those allegations. Egypt, which has also backed Haftar, has long supported the Sudanese army. In a statement, Sudanese army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said the attack took place in the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border triangle, an area to the north of one of the war's main front lines, el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. He said the attack constitutes 'a blatant aggression against Sudan'. 'We will defend our country and our national sovereignty, and will prevail, regardless of the extent of the conspiracy and aggression supported by the United Arab Emirates and its militias in the region,' Abdallah added. Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the UAE of backing the assault, describing it as a 'dangerous escalation' and a 'flagrant violation of international law'. 'Sudan's border with Libya has long served as a major corridor for weapons and mercenaries supporting the terrorist militia, funded by the UAE and coordinated by Haftar's forces and affiliated terrorist groups,' it said in a statement. There was no immediate response from Haftar's forces. The RSF has not issued an official statement, but a source within the group said that its fighters had taken control on Monday of the entrance to Jebel Uweinat, a remote mountain area that sits where the three countries meet, according to the AFP news agency.