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hunger
UN Agency Warns Trump's Illegal Iran War Pushing Millions Into Hunger
"The poorest families around the world, far from the center of the crisis, are being hit the hardest."
Jun 05, 2026
The United Nations World Food Program on Friday warned that President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran is pushing millions of people across the world into hunger.
A report published by the WFP on Friday finds that the Iran war, which has resulted in the months-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz, is "generating significant spillovers, particularly through fuel, food price, and income shocks, and trade disruptions."
The impacts of the war are being felt most in some of the world's poorest countries, particularly those that rely on shipments from the Persian Gulf region for essential commodities.
The report projects that 2.3 million more people in Afghanistan will face severe hunger in 2026 due to the impact of the war, along with 2.5 million people in Somalia, and 1.3 million people in Sri Lanka.
"Extensive dependence on energy and food imports and external trade corridors has left the countries we studied exposed to the effects of the crisis," the report states. "In Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Somalia, impacts include supply chain disruptions and the pass through of higher global energy prices to domestic prices. Governments’ fiscal space is constrained by reduced revenue from falling import duties and the burden of high public debt."
The report also warns that the conflict is harming WFP's operational capabilities and its inability to provide relief to people suffering from hunger will only grow the longer the war continues.
"WFP estimates it will now serve 1.5 million fewer people that it originally planned to in 2026," the report explains. "If the conflict continues for six months, more than 9 million people could lose assistance, driven by a combination of higher operational costs and rising local food prices, which also increases the cost of cash-based assistance. In the meantime, funding for WFP operations have also decreased."
WFP's analysis also expresses concerns about political instability caused by rising hunger, pointing to the increased number of anti-government demonstrations in recent months as a sign of "increasing popular discontent."
Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of WFP’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service, noted that the current crisis was predicted to happen by WFP months ago, but that its warnings went unheeded.
“Early warnings only matter if the world acts on them,” said Bauer. "We warned that this crisis could push millions more people into hunger; now we are watching it happen in real time. In many cases, the poorest families around the world, far from the center of the crisis, are being hit the hardest."
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Report Finds 'Remarkable Increase in Food Insecurity' Across US Under Trump
"More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic. Families are skipping meals, relying on food banks, and turning to SNAP to get by."
May 29, 2026
An analysis released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that food insecurity in the US has reached levels not seen since the height of the coronavirus pandemic, underscoring the devastating impact of Republican cuts to federal nutrition assistance and President Donald Trump's inflationary economic and foreign policy decisions.
In a blog post, New York Fed researchers detailed their findings of "a remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children," as well as "a contemporaneous increase in pessimism among the same groups, along with a sharp decline in job-finding expectations."
The researchers cited new data showing increases in the percentage of Americans who reported receiving food donations and skipping meals in recent months, as prices for basic necessities rose. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that Trump and congressional Republicans enacted last summer are also having an impact, stripping food aid from hundreds of thousands of low-income children and millions of people overall.
Among those who reported skipping meals and relying on food banks, "there is a lower, and more rapidly declining, net share of respondents expecting to be better versus worse off financially a year from now," despite some topline figures indicating a relatively strong economy (such as a low unemployment rate), the researchers observed.
"This means that an increase in the incidence of food insecurity is associated with a deterioration in consumer sentiment," they added.
More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic. Families are skipping meals, relying on food banks, and turning to SNAP to get by. Hunger is rising and Congress cannot look away. https://t.co/ImAFSuTJSg
— Food Research & Action Center (@fractweets) May 28, 2026
The New York Fed's analysis came amid a flurry of new data showing that rising inflation—now at a three-year high—is eroding Americans' paychecks and causing personal savings rates to plummet as households are forced to spend more on gas, food, and other basics.
Following the release of new federal data on Thursday, the nonprofit research group Equitable Growth pointed to "an important milestone: Household incomes are now down year-over-year. American households had more money to spend in April of 2025."
"Although income is down for all households this month, it is falling faster for the bottom 50% households, who have seen their income fall by 1.6% compared to April of last year," noted Equitable Growth visiting fellow Austin Clemens. "This group’s income has fallen in five of the last six months.”
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'Children Are Dying': Trump-Musk Gutting of USAID Helps Push Somalia to Brink of Famine
"Without urgent action now, Somalia risks becoming one of the clearest examples of what happens when early warnings are ignored and humanitarian systems are allowed to erode."
May 15, 2026
A report released Thursday showing that Somalia is rapidly descending into famine underscored the harms done by the illegal dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, a department that President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk targeted as part of a broader assault on the federal government.
New data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) showed that more than six million people—around a third of Somalia's population—are facing acute hunger as drought and conflict combine with humanitarian aid cuts to create a devastating humanitarian emergency. Around 1.9 million children in Somalia "are now expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition in 2026," according to IPC, and regions of the country are at severe risk of famine.
"Humanitarian assistance remains a lifeline but is far from sufficient, reaching only 12% of people in Phase 3 or above," said IPC, a partnership of aid organizations and United Nations agencies. "A rapid and sustained scale‑up of multisectoral assistance—particularly in hotspot areas such as Burhakaba—is urgently needed to prevent further deterioration and loss of life."
Reuters noted that "global cuts to foreign aid, including by the United States, have substantially reduced support to Somalia." The outlet added that "impacts of the US-Israeli war on Iran are complicating efforts to respond to food shortages caused by multiple failed rain seasons and ongoing insecurity."
Mohamed Mohamud Hassan, Save the Children's Somalia director, said in a statement Thursday that the country is "in the grip of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe" and the "window to prevent famine... is closing fast."
"Children are dying from preventable causes—malnutrition, disease, displacement—while funding falls far short of what is urgently needed," said Hassan. "We call on the international community to act now, scale up lifesaving assistance, and ensure that no child dies because the world looked away."
"Somalia is once again standing at the edge of catastrophe. This is a crisis of access, affordability, and global political failure."
The US has historically been the largest contributor of humanitarian aid to Somalia, but the Trump administration's shuttering of USAID cut off much of the American food and medical aid that was flowing to the East African nation. The Trump administration's dismantling of USAID has also severely harmed Somalia's economy.
"Somalia is once again standing at the edge of catastrophe," Richard Crothers, Somalia country director at the International Rescue Committee, said Friday. "This is a crisis of access, affordability, and global political failure. Without urgent action now, Somalia risks becoming one of the clearest examples of what happens when early warnings are ignored and humanitarian systems are allowed to erode."
Experts say the closure of USAID last year is already responsible for hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, and researchers have warned that millions more could die by 2030 if the aid is not restored.
In addition to sounding the alarm about Somalia, IPC released reports this week detailing increasingly dire hunger in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan—countries that were also devastated by the gutting of USAID.
"USAID was the leading donor in the country and most aid agencies relied on its funding to help people survive and rebuild their lives," said Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam International's DRC country director. "Without it, agencies have been forced to make terrible triage decisions including who gets to live and who might needlessly die."
"The world cannot continue to look the other way—the situation is dire," Mangundu added.
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