300 million people in 53 countries at risk of starving to death

Jean Shaoul

The number of people facing “high levels of acute food insecurity” in 2024 rose for the sixth consecutive year, reaching a horrific 295.3 million. The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) notes that this is equivalent to nearly a quarter—22.6 percent—of the population of the 53 countries requiring external assistance that were its subject.

The almost 300 million people at risk of starvation is an increase of 13.7 million over 2023, thanks to escalating conflicts, cuts in humanitarian aid and climate and economic shocks.

The UN's Global Report on Food Crises [Photo: UN]

That so many people face death by starvation, under conditions of unprecedented scientific and technological developments in food production and distribution, is a devastating indictment of the capitalist system of production for private profit. The report itself was barely mentioned in the mainstream media, indicating the degree to which famine and starvation have been normalised by the world’s ruling elites.

The 2025 annual report was prepared by 16 international agencies, including various United Nations organisations, the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and several regional intergovernmental bodies.

It said that escalating “conflicts” in Palestine and the Sudan had driven extraordinarily high levels of acute food insecurity, with Gaza becoming the most severe food crisis since the annual Global Report on Food Crises began.

The number of people facing the most severe lack of food, described as “catastrophic” and characterised by starvation, death, destitution and high rates of acute malnutrition, more than doubled last year. More than 95 percent of the people existing in such conditions are in Gaza or Sudan.

Some 36 countries or territories are deemed protracted food crises, having been included in all eight reports. Of these, 19 are protracted major food crises and account for up to 80 percent of the total population facing high levels of acute food insecurity across food-crisis countries/territories each year. Yet the plight of many of these countries never makes it to the international media.

In the anodyne words of the press briefing, “Intensifying conflict, increasing geopolitical tensions, global economic uncertainty and profound funding cuts are deepening acute food insecurity.”

Wars—typically described as conflicts—and insecurity were the primary drivers of food insecurity in 2023-24, affecting 134.5 million people in 20 countries or territories. Seven of these were in the Middle East and North Africa and six were in West Africa.

Conflict was the major driver in most of the 10 largest food crises: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Gaza, Sudan and Yemen, with Gaza, Haiti and Sudan listed as worsening conflicts. Globally there were 12 percent more conflicts in 2023 than in 2022, and 40 percent more than in 2020. These have also contributed to the rapid increase in the number of displaced people over the last 10 years.

Since October 2023, around 80 percent of Gaza’s population have been internally displaced, many multiple times, due to Israel’s genocidal war on what was already little more than an open-air prison, suffering the impact of Israel’s 16 year-long blockade of the Hamas-controlled entity. The lack of adequate shelter and access to essential services, along with the reduced supply of food, fuel and other basic commodities, further increased the risk of famine, even before Israel imposed a total blockade last March.

Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 5, 2025 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]

Last week, a UN-backed assessment by the same group of international agencies reported that the entire population was experiencing critical levels of hunger. Half a million people—one in five of the population—were facing starvation. The reports said nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months to April 2026 and added, “Many households are resorting to extreme measures to find food, including begging, and collecting garbage to sell to buy something to eat”.

The report said, “Following the closure of all crossings into the Gaza Strip in early March, and the collapse of the two-month ceasefire, food access has been severely restricted.” As a result, Gaza’s population of around 2.1 million Palestinians is at “critical risk” of famine and faces “extreme levels of food insecurity”, with around 244,000 people currently experiencing the most severe, or “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity.

This situation is a deliberate policy aimed at driving the Palestinians out of Gaza, carried out by the fascist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been served an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Years of wars and conflict in Afghanistan, South Sudan and Syria have left their economies in tatters and eroded people’s resilience and ability to cope. This led to people fleeing their homes and seeking safety both within their own countries and beyond and affected not only the displaced people but host communities that were themselves too impoverished to help them.

The brutal war that broke out between rival factions of Sudan’s armed forces in April 2023 with the backing of regional powers created the world’s largest displacement crisis that year. Some 1.5 million people were internally displaced and a further 1.5 million displaced in neighbouring countries, including parts of Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan, where high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition were already widespread.

The worsening civil war has led to famine being officially declared as more than 24 million of Sudan’s 52 million people face acute food insecurity, with atrocious impacts on women and children.

Ethiopian refugees line up for water in Qadarif region, eastern Sudan, November 15, 2020. Thousands of Ethiopians fled the war in Tigray region into Sudan [AP Photo/Marwan Ali]

Around 6.6 million people are internally displaced in Syria and a further 5.5 million displaced in neighbouring countries where many face high levels of food insecurity amid worsening socio-economic crises and cuts in humanitarian aid.

As the world experienced its hottest year in 2023, leading to extreme heat, drought, wildfires, intense rainfall and flooding, 72 million people in 18 countries—up from 56.8 million in 12 countries in 2022—faced high levels of food insecurity for these reasons.

Twelve of these countries were in Africa, with the Horn of Africa experiencing below-average rainfall for three consecutive years, leading to the worst drought in 40 years that affected rangeland, water resources and crop and livestock production. In Central and Southern Africa, dry conditions had a disastrous impact on crop production, while cyclone Freddy in March 2023 caused mass destruction. A year later, an El Nino-driven drought devastated crop production, prompting Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to declare national disasters.

In Asia, cyclone Mocha in May 2023 caused widespread destruction, affecting more than 3 million people in Myanmar alone.

The cost-of-living crisis combined with a totally inadequate response by governments was responsible for 75 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as global economic growth slowed in 2023 following hikes in central bank rates. Of the 53 countries included in the study, 48 are net food importers. Many, poor and bereft of foreign exchange reserves, were unable to import sufficient food and other essential items, leading to exorbitant prices in domestic markets that made it impossible for many people to feed their families.

The report provides little in the way of a concrete analysis that sets out the political and economic processes—the activities of the banks, giant food corporations and traders and the role of governments and central banks—in creating this catastrophe.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his introduction to the report, “This is more than a failure of systems—it is a failure of humanity”. No, this is a failure of capitalism. But Guterres called on the same capitalist governments that had caused the crisis to resolve it, saying, “This crisis demands an urgent response. Using the data in this report to transform food systems and address the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition will be vital. So will finance. Funding is not keeping pace with need.”

Presidential elections in Poland shake up the ruling camp

Martin Nowak

Liberal Polish presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski, right, shakes hands with Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the head of the Polish People's Party and the deputy prime miniser, as they arrive to speak to voters in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, May 19, 2025. [AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski]

Around 29 million Poles were called to the polls on Sunday to elect a new head of state. Incumbent President Andrzej Duda was ineligible to run for re-election after two terms in office. As predicted, none of the eleven candidates won an absolute majority in the first round, meaning that a runoff will be held on 1 June. The election is considered a historic turning point for the development of Poland and Europe. At 67 percent, it also saw the highest turnout in a first round of voting since 1989.

The frontrunner, Rafał Trzaskowski, surprisingly won only 31.3 percent of the vote, significantly less than predicted before the election. The mayor of Warsaw is the candidate of the right-wing Civic Platform (PO) and thus the ruling party of Donald Tusk.

Karol Nawrocki is close behind him and significantly stronger than expected with 29.5 percent. The non-party historian was head of the far-right Institute of National Remembrance and, like his predecessor Duda, is the candidate of the far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS). In accordance with electoral law, Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will face each other in a runoff election on 1 June.

The fact that Trzaskowski and the other candidates from the ruling camp only received around 41 percent of the votes in the first round is a bitter blow for the Tusk government. Szymon Hołownia performed particularly poorly. The former journalist and presenter had surprisingly come third in the 2020 presidential elections with 13.9 percent of the vote as a newcomer. Since then, he and his party Polska 2050, together with the farmers’ party PSL, have been one of the most important coalition partners of the Tusk government. Now he came fifth with only 4.9 percent.

Third place went to 38-year-old Sławomir Mentzen. With 14.8 percent, the candidate of the far-right Konfederacja party roughly doubled his party’s share of the vote compared to the last election. Mentzen belongs to the New Right, which presents itself as young, modern and an anti-establishment force. He summed up his mixture of fascist and economic libertarian views with the slogan “We don’t want Jews, gays, abortion, taxes or the EU.”

In fourth place was Grzegorz Braun, another openly fascist candidate, who received 6.3 percent of the vote. Braun, who sees himself as a monarchist and repeatedly attracts attention with physical attacks, split from the Confederation shortly before the election. Both far-right candidates are benefiting from the massive discrediting of the old establishment of PO and PiS, including the state apparatus. Their rejection of the war in Ukraine, which they formulate from a reactionary, nationalist standpoint, also resonates with voters.

In a distorted form, the share of the vote won by Adrian Zandberg (4.8 percent) and Magdalena Biejat (4.2 percent) from the pseudo-left Razem party also reflects the growing opposition to the united political course of PiS and PO. It is the best election result for nominally “left-wing” candidates in presidential elections since 2010.

Biejat, along with four other MPs, left Razem only last year because she—together with the social democratic Nowa Lewica—wants to continue supporting the Tusk government. Although Razem has never entered government and, unlike Nowa Lewica, does not hold any ministerial posts, it voted for Tusk, supports his pro-war policies and has acted as a loyal opposition.

Due to the increasing discrediting of the Tusk government, Zandberg, a popular frontman and disciple of Pabloite Jacek Kuroń, had recently sought to distance himself and left the joint parliamentary faction Lewica.

Even if Zandberg primarily serves as a left pressure valve, the approximately one million votes he received show that many workers and students in Poland are looking for a left-wing alternative. Zandberg was the only candidate who clearly spoke out in favour of higher taxes on companies and the rich, social redistribution and against anti-refugee sentiment.

The shift away from the establishment parties, particularly among young voters, becomes even clearer when analysing the distribution of votes by age group. The 18-29 age group had both the highest turnout and the lowest results for PO and PiS: while both parties only achieved 12 and 10 percent respectively, Mentzen won 36 percent and Zandberg around 20 percent of the votes in this age group.

The younger generation in Poland knows nothing but the power struggles between PO and PiS – but they have experienced first-hand that behind the staged hostility there are hardly any differences between the two camps. Social inequality has exploded, the education and health systems have been steadily dismantled, and affordable housing is almost impossible to find.

PiS and PO emerged in 2001 from the collapse of the Solidarność electoral alliance and the government of Jerzy Buzek, which initiated Poland’s path into NATO and the EU. The associated privatisation and austerity policies were then continued by Leszek Miller of the social democratic SLD–until this government also collapsed in 2005. PO and PiS emerged as the dominant forces from this political wreckage. A brief PiS government under Kaczyński was followed by eight years under Tusk.

Tusk moved to the top of the European Council in 2014. In the parliamentary elections a year later, his coalition of PO and PSL lost almost three million votes. The PiS won with a popular social programme that deliberately targeted Tusk’s business-friendly policies: early retirement, tax breaks for low earners and the introduction of child benefits.

When PiS candidate Duda became president in 2015, the party soon gained an absolute majority in the Sejm (parliament). Backed by this majority and the presidency, it attacked democratic rights, pushed for the enforced conformity of the judiciary and the media, and fueled anti-European nationalism–especially against Germany.

The global economic crisis of 2008 and the euro crisis of 2013 had already triggered massive social upheaval. Based on strong economic growth in the interim, PiS pursued a limited redistribution policy–but this was not to last. The de facto abolition of abortion rights, reactionary coronavirus policies and the ensuing economic crisis led to the decline of PiS. In the 2023 election, it lost over eight percent of the vote and was ousted from government by a broad coalition led by Tusk.

Since then, there has been a stalemate between President Duda and the Tusk government. Duda can block laws, grant amnesties and, as head of state, has supreme command of the armed forces.

But despite all the factional rivalry, there is broad agreement on the fundamental issues. The Tusk government has intensified the rearmament already begun by PiS and established an arms budget of five per cent of GDP–the highest in the EU. The goal of building the largest land army in Europe and militarising the entire society, including shooting lessons in schools, is a cross-party consensus.

Duda not only approved the defence budget but also intensified attacks on refugees and the de facto abolition of the right to asylum. Just a few days before the election, Tusk announced that an additional ($3.4 billion) would be invested in the police, fire brigade, border guards and state security. “Security is not about words, but about deeds and money,” he declared.

Even the limited liberalisation of abortion laws failed not because of Duda’s veto, but because of resistance from Tusk’s far-right coalition partners, especially the peasant party PSL.

What Tusk really needs presidential support for are the planned attacks on the working class. To finance military spending, the government will be forced to cut the already meagre social programmes of the PiS era. At the same time, there will be tax breaks for big business. In early May, Duda blocked a government decision to reduce health insurance contributions for the self-employed—a policy that Trzaskowski openly supported during the election campaign, declaring that “there will be no such blockades” with him in power.

Major Sri Lanka apparel company, Next, retrenches 1,500 workers

S.K. Keerthi & Vimal Perera

Next Manufacturing, one of Sri Lanka’s largest apparel plants, located in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (KFTZ), shut down on Tuesday, resulting in the retrenchment of about 1,500 workers.

Katunayake Free Trade Zone entrance

Anticipating angry protests, Next management informed employees about the closure via WhatsApp messages on Monday night after they returned to their homes. Management claimed “high operational costs” were responsible for the shutdown.

The company has been operating in the KFTZ since 1978 when the area was established as a cheap labour platform and given sweeping tax concessions to attract foreign direct investments. Next’s Katunayake facility is owned by Next UK, one of Britain’s high-street fashion retailers and a leading supplier of high-quality knitted and woven wear to foreign markets.

Next has two other plants in Sri Lanka—one at Andigama and the other at Nawgaththegama, 43 and 116 kilometres from Katunayake respectively—employing around 1,000 workers. While these factories are still operating, the company’s stated reason for closing its KFTZ facility means mass job destruction hangs over the heads of those workers.

Shocked by the sudden closure, hundreds of Next workers mobilised outside the KFTZ plant on Tuesday morning. The factory entrance was sealed with no factory management personnel present.

While many of these workers are members of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZGSEU), no union officials, including its secretary Anton Marcus, came to address workers outside the plant. After waiting for a few hours, the workers went to FTZGSEU’s office located nearby.

Marcus told union members that he would speak with factory management to get their jobs back and lodge a complaint with the labour commissioner.

Workers cannot place any confidence in Marcus’s promises. Knowing full well that the company had already issued a statement closing the plant and that the labour commissioners would do nothing against this foreign investor, his comments were designed to hoodwink and disperse the angry workers.

A Next employee who has been with the company for about 10 years and went with others to the factory gate, and then the union office, spoke to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS).

“I was shocked to see the WhatsApp message and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was given my monthly basic salary of rupees 45,000 ($US300) and altogether about 60,000 rupees,” he said.

The worker explained that he needed 8,000 rupees per month to pay for his two-year-old daughter’s day care, and 10,000 rupees monthly for his house rent. Even if paid compensation for termination of employment, the maximum he would receive would be one million rupees, which he said was totally inadequate.

“I went in search of work today and got work as a casual employee. At the end of the day, I was only paid 1,700 rupees,” he added.

Next Manufacturing management sent two messages to employees on Monday night. The first was about retrenchment and the second about its compensation scheme. The worker told the WSWS that Next employees had little confidence in the union officials and wanted better compensation payments.

Announcing the closure, Next Manufacturing director David Reay cried crocodile tears, claiming to be “sad” about the decision. He claimed it was the result of “the increasingly high operating cost of the Katunayake Manufacturing Plant” and that it had been unprofitable for “some years.”

Reay’s claims are undermined by the fact that the UK-owned Next retailer made record profits last year. On March 27 this year Reuters reported that the company increased its profit by 10.1 percent in 2024/25 and “made a pretax profit of 1.011 billion pounds ($US1.31 billion) in its year to January 25, 2025.” Along with supermarket giant Tesco and the Marks & Spencer clothing and food group, Reuters said Next had achieved a “landmark profit figure.”

The Katunayake Next factory is notorious for slashing workers’ entitlements. In December 2020, factory management called the police to quell a strike that erupted against the reduction of workers’ bonus payments. Management declared that the cuts were necessary because the company had lost profits caused by COVID-19 safety measures and workers infected by the disease. Workers rejected these claims as false.

Workers demonstrating outside Next garment factory in 2020.

Threats to Sri Lankan garment workers’ jobs and conditions have accelerated following US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes on imports. The US is the single largest market for Sri Lankan garment manufacturers. The sector employs 15 percent of the country’s total industrial workforce, with over 350,000 workers and indirectly supports approximately 600,000 more.

On April 8, Vogue Tex garments, which employs around 2,000 workers, refused to pay the Sinhala-Tamil New Year bonus, citing US tariff increases. Workers responded to this attack by holding a powerful sit-in strike on April 8 and 9. While management was shocked by the rapid response, it only agreed to pay half of the outstanding bonus.

The FTZGSEU and its general secretary Anton Marcus have no intention of mobilising garment workers to fight management attacks on jobs, bonuses and conditions. The union bureaucracy is committed to working with the company managements against workers.

Marcus and his union played this role when COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka in 2020. The FTZGSEU and other trade unions directly collaborated with the companies in the Rajapakse government’s National Labour Advisory Council to impose mass retrenchments and wage cuts. While 150,000 apparel jobs were lost, the remaining employees were forced to return to work in unsafe conditions.

Asked this week about the closure of Next Manufacturing in Katunayake Free Trade Zone, the Dissanayake government’s deputy labour minister Mahinda Jayasinghe told parliament that he would hold discussions with management, trade unions and the Board of Investment.

Jayasinghe said they would discuss a “proposed compensation formula.” In other words, they would collaborate to ensure closure goes ahead.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/National People’s Power (JVP/NPP) administration and the Sri Lankan trade unions are fully committed to the International Monetary Fund austerity measures, which includes ongoing tax cuts and concessions to attract and maintain foreign investments.

The closure of the Next garment plant, which was established almost five decades ago, is a warning not just to apparel industry employees but state and private sector workers across Sri Lanka.