Daily Brief · free, every morning
Wars and drought are squeezing millions across Sudan, the Horn of Africa and Yemen
Famine-scale hunger now affects tens of millions of people across warring states. Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces are still fighting, with 33.7 million people needing assistance in 2026 (OCHA, 2026 HNRP). A UN Fact-Finding Mission found in February 2026 that the RSF committed genocide against non-Arab communities and used starvation as a weapon. In Yemen, renewed Houthi-government combat is killing children at the highest rate in years (War Child, 2026), and 18.3 million people are acutely food-insecure (OCHA, 2026 HNRP). Drought now stretches from Ethiopia to Chad and down to Haiti and Cuba (GDACS, 4 Oct 2026).
The same war feeding the hunger also blocks the food. Iran's war collapsed its currency and cut Hormuz shipping to a fraction of pre-war traffic, raising the cost of grain reaching East Africa. In Ukraine, Russia hit a second major bridge in Kyiv this week (BBC, 2 Oct 2026), keeping Black Sea supply nerves tight. Donors should fund Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen at scale now, before drought harvests fail; agencies should pre-position food in Chad and Sudan's Kordofan before roads become impassable in the rains.
Watch items
- Sudan — RSF pressure on El Obeid could trap another quarter-million civilians
- Burkina Faso — JNIM blockade of Djibo risks famine for besieged families
- Haiti — Gangs expanding from Port-au-Prince toward Artibonite food farms