Famine: what is it, where will it strike and how should the world respond?

A toxic combination of climate emergency, conflict and Covid is pushing some of the poorest countries into an acute hunger crisis

Global hunger toll soars by 150m as Covid and war make their mark

The world is in the grip of an unprecedented hunger crisis. A toxic combination of climate crisis, conflict and Covid had already placed some of the poorest countries under enormous strain, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent grain and fuel prices soaring.

We thought it couldn't get any worse," said David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), in June. But this war has been devastating."