Africa’s next food crisis may not begin on the farm, but in a distant shipping lane.

World Food Programme has warned that Lebanon is rapidly sliding into a food security crisis as the fallout from the US-Iran conflict disrupts supplies and drives up prices.

Global food waste has reached alarming levels, with more than one billion tonnes discarded each year, prompting urgent calls from United Nations agencies for bold action to tackle the crisis.

Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), stated on Tuesday that if the conflict in the Middle East continues until summer, the number of hungry people worldwide could rise by 45 million. Analysts believe that Africa and Asia will suffer the most, with hunger reaching record levels. “This is a terrible prospect,” Skau emphasized.

The Global Nutrition Cluster warned on Monday that approximately 4.2 million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Sudan are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2026, amid ongoing conflict and the collapse of essential services.

More than half of South Sudan's population will experience acute food insecurity through the upcoming lean season, which begins in April 2024, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released on Monday.