Famine

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that around 2 million people in war-torn Myanmar’s Rakhine state will be at risk of starvation by March-April 2025. Myanmar has been wracked by a bloody civil war between the Buddhist Tatmadaw military junta that wrested power in a 2021 coup and ethnoreligious forces that are resisting the army’s violent rule: the war has caused catastrophic conditions for many of Myanmar’s civilians.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced Tuesday that it urgently requires more funding to help millions of people facing food shortages across southern Africa. The shortages are the result of unprecedented drought caused by El Niño, a climate phenomenon that intensifies dry or stormy weather patterns, WFP said.