Food insecurity remains a persistent challenge across Africa, as conflict, displacement and fragile livelihoods leave millions of households struggling to secure enough food.
Development Diaries reports that an analysis published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies on 04 November estimated that nearly 164 million Africans were experiencing acute food insecurity for the third consecutive year.
About 134 million, representing 82 percent of those affected, live in countries experiencing conflict, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan and Ethiopia accounting for 60 percent of the continental total.
In Nigeria, for example, the analysis estimates that 6.3 million additional people faced acute food insecurity over the past year, a 20.6 percent increase linked to violence in the northeast and northwest.
Prolonged displacement has forced households to abandon farming, pastoralism and trading, leaving many dependent on assistance or increasingly expensive food supplies.
The crisis is particularly severe for women and children, with women often carrying responsibility for feeding their households and may have fewer opportunities to earn income or access land and agricultural inputs, especially when displacement separates them from their communities.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women face additional nutritional risks, while children experiencing prolonged food shortages are more vulnerable to malnutrition and its effects on physical and cognitive development.
As for young people from households whose livelihoods have collapsed, they may also leave school or enter unsafe work to help support their families, while persons with disabilities face further barriers when food distribution points, transport arrangements and humanitarian information are inaccessible.
Older people and people with chronic illnesses may also struggle to reach assistance or meet their nutritional needs without additional support.
Indeed, these groups should be identified in food security assessments and included in the design and monitoring of relief programmes.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides protections relevant to food security through its provisions on health, development and the protection of family and community welfare.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in Resolution ACHPR/Res.514(LXX) of 2022, specifically called on states to strengthen the right to food through improved nutrition programmes, social protection, safe water, agricultural productivity and support for vulnerable groups.
Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol also requires states to ensure women’s access to adequate and nutritious food, land, clean water and the means of producing food, with the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child recognising children’s right to the best attainable state of health and calling on governments to address malnutrition and provide adequate nutrition and safe drinking water.
National governments have primary responsibility for protecting people facing hunger through agricultural policy, social protection, public health and emergency response.
In this case, ministries responsible for agriculture, humanitarian affairs, health and social development must coordinate their interventions, while local authorities should identify vulnerable households and monitor whether assistance reaches them.
On its part, the African Union and its regional bodies should coordinate continental responses and encourage governments to implement their commitments, just as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and other humanitarian partners provide technical and operational support.
However, their interventions cannot replace government responsibility.
Governments should therefore publish updated food security assessments, disclose funding gaps and explain how food assistance is distributed.
They should also support smallholder farmers, including women farmers, with access to land, credit, agricultural inputs, extension services and safe routes to markets.
In conflict-affected areas, authorities must improve the protection of farming communities and ensure that displaced households can access food and livelihood support.
Civil society organisations, farmers’ associations, women’s groups, youth organisations and disability rights advocates can monitor food distribution, document exclusion and report shortages in affected communities.
Citizens should be able to obtain information about available assistance, eligibility requirements and complaint channels without facing discrimination or intimidation.
Emergency food aid remains necessary, but African governments must address the conflict, displacement, livelihood losses and economic pressures that keep households in crisis.
