(UN News)* —More than eight per cent of the world population or around 673 million people are not getting enough to eat and going hungry, according to the UN.
Conflict, climate change and inequality are all playing a role, but there are other reasons for what is known rather dryly as “food insecurity.”
Ahead of World Food Day on 16 October, here are five things you need to know about why even though there’s enough food to feed the global population of over eight billion – people still go hungry.
Armed conflicts, such as those in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza, disrupt food production, supply chains, and access to markets. This leads to the displacement of people, creating acute food insecurity for millions.
9 October 2025 — The combined wealth of EU billionaires increased by more than 400 billion euros in just six months this year – the equivalent of over two billion euros a day.
A boy sits amid scenes of destruction in Macomia town after it was hit by tropical cyclone Kenneth, which made landfall in Cabo Delgado province in Northern Mozambique, on 25th April 2019. Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Oxfam
That is according to Oxfam’s new report, “A European Agenda to Tax the Super-Rich”which comes ahead of European finance ministers meeting to discuss ways to finance the EU’s budget.
In 2025, the EU counted nearly 500 billionaires, 39 more than in 2024. In the last year alone, a new billionaire was created, on average, every 9 days in the EU.
Rivers cut by dams, farmland expansion and urban growth are putting food, water, biodiversity and livelihoods at risk unless urgent action is taken.
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Bonn/Abu Dhabi, 11 October 2025 – Nearly one-third of the Earth’s land surface has already been profoundly transformed by human activity, leaving ecosystems degraded and fragmented, according to the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Ecological Connectivity and Land Restoration, launched on 11 October 202 at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.
(UN News)* — Millions of Haitians are facing food insecurity as armed groups continue to expand their territorial control around the country, the latest internationally-recognised IPC hunger report found.
In its recent analysis, the IPC, a UN-backed index measuring hunger and malnutrition in global hotspots, found that 5.7 million Haitians are facing a deteriorating food security situation.
The study provides an analysis for the period of September 2025 until February 2026 and a projection for March until June of next year.
(UN News)* — As displaced Gazans jammed the main route leading north on Friday [] after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas reportedly came into effect, UN aid teams repeated their call to open all crossings into the devastated enclave to prevent famine spreading.
UN News | Thousands of people in Gaza are on the move following the ceasefire deal.
“There is little information available on the details or how the agreement will be implemented. However, we call for all crossings into Gaza to be open immediately so that humanitarian supplies can flow into the war-torn enclave,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.
26 Sep 2025 – Yesterday saw two announcements. Starmer is to introduce compulsory digital ID cards in the UK, and Tony Blair is put forward by the White House to be the colonial administrator of Gaza for five years.
The political economy of the world appears locked in a vertiginous downward spiral. You don’t have to scratch very hard to find that Tony Blair’s hand is also behind the compulsory ID plan. He has been pushing it for nearly thirty years, and now it comes with added links to Larry Ellison, Palantir and Israel.
Nearly two-thirds of climate finance was made as loans, often at standard rates of interest without concessions, research by Oxfam and CARE Climate Justice Centre has found.
Oxfam and CARE Climate Justice Centre argue that wealthy nations are profiteering through climate finance loans. Credit: CARE Climate Justice Center
THE HAGUE, Netherlands , Oct 8 2025 (IPS)* – New research by Oxfam and the CARE Climate Justice Centre finds developing countries are now paying more back to wealthy nations for climate finance loans than they receive—for every USD 5 they receive, they are paying USD 7 back, and 65 percent of funding is delivered in the form of loans.
This form of crisis profiteering by rich countries is worsening debt burdens and hindering climate action. Continue reading →
(UN News)* —The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday [] that millions in Somalia are at risk of worsening hunger and malnutrition as critical funding shortfalls force the agency to cut back on life-saving emergency food assistance.
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WFP/Geneva Costopulos | Children at an IDP camp in Somalia.
“We are seeing a dangerous rise in emergency levels of hunger, and our ability to respond is shrinking by the day,” said Ross Smith,WFPdirector of emergencies.
“Without urgent funding,families already pushed to the edge will be left with nothing at a time when they need it most.”
A striking 4.4 million Somalis are facing crisis level of food insecurity or worse, the latest internationally backed IPC index reported, a global standard for measuring hunger and malnutrition.
In less than nine months, Israel has demolished more Palestinian homes and structures in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over building permits than in the whole of last year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on 1 October 2025 said.
Caption: Eighty-six Palestinian structures have already been demolished this year in Khallet Athaba, Masafer Yatta, under Israel’s permit regime. Photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz/NRC
By 30 September, Israeli authorities had demolished 1,288 structures over building permits, nearly five a day, including 138 funded by international aid.
(UN News)* — UN aid teams on Friday [3 October 2025] highlighted the disturbing situation in Gaza’s makeshift hospitals, where premature babies cry for scant oxygen and medics attempt to save child survivors targeted by airstrikes in their tents and quadcopter victims reportedly shot while fetching bread.
Speaking from the war-shattered enclave amid the ongoing Israeli military push to take full control of Gaza City, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder described one short visit to a hospital where youngsters were either suffering or dying everywhere he looked.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 