The food situation in Democratic Republic of Congo continues to deteriorate, with new data from international organizations showing that the number of people facing acute hunger has grown significantly comparing to previous year.
According to the World Food Programme, approximately 26.6 million people in DRC are dealing with acute food insecurity in early 2026, with around 4 million people reaching IPC Phase 4 — the second-highest severity level before famine.
The situation is especially critical in eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika. More than 10 million people — approximately one third of local population — are expected to face crisis-level food insecurity. Among them, 3 million people are already in emergency hunger conditions, which is 700,000 more comparing to March 2025.
Children are among those most affected. Around 14 million children — one in every five — will face crisis levels of hunger between January and June 2026, representing surge of at least 20 percent from year before.
WFP had originally planned to support 2.3 million people in 2025, but due to massive funding shortfalls this number was reduced to only 600,000 people. For 2026, FAO requires 127 million US dollars to scale up support for around 2.4 million people.
Situation in Angola is different in nature but also serious. Angola is facing prolonged drought worsened by El Niño event. Estimated 2.2 million people are in need of assistance, including 1.8 million who are food insecure and 1.3 million who require nutrition support.
For wider region of west and central Africa, projections show that 52.78 million people will be at risk during June-August 2026 lean season, comparing to 41.78 million in October-December 2025.
