10.6 million people in Pakistan will need aid in 2026 — Dawn

About 10.6 million people in Pakistan will need humanitarian assistance in 2026, according to a report by the international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger. The country was included among the ten states facing the largest food crises, Dawn reports.

Where hunger is most severe

The Ten Largest Global Food Crises report, released ahead of World Food Day, states that around 177 million people live in the ten countries with the highest concentration of hunger. Over the past decade, the number of people suffering from acute hunger has doubled, reaching 266 million across 47 countries.

The list of the ten largest food crises includes Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Syria.

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Causes of food insecurity

In Pakistan, food insecurity is aggravated by persistent poverty, high food inflation, rising living costs, limited employment opportunities, and declining household incomes. Unfavorable agricultural prices and overall economic instability also undermine families' livelihoods.

Due to a lack of resources for humanitarian assistance, vulnerable families are reducing food consumption, selling productive assets, and withdrawing children from school to cope with financial pressure. The report warns that such measures may deepen poverty, worsen children's nutrition, and weaken families' ability to recover from future shocks.

The situation is further complicated by floods, droughts, heatwaves, glacial lake outburst floods, and increasingly erratic monsoon rains. They damage infrastructure, reduce agricultural production, and harm households dependent on livestock. Local instability in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, according to the report, also disrupts access to markets and hampers humanitarian operations.