GENEVA, 2 October 2026 — A new UN Women analysis warns that 11.7 million additional women and girls across 28 countries could become food insecure by the end of December if the Middle East escalation and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz continue.
The estimate comes on top of roughly 208 million women and girls in the countries studied who were already food insecure or undernourished before the latest escalation. UN Women stressed that the figures are scenario-based estimates rather than forecasts.
Women and girls are projected to account for 53 per cent of the 22 million additional people who could be affected. Their share rises to 60 per cent in Afghanistan, more than 57 per cent in Yemen and nearly 56 per cent in Sudan.
UN Women said higher energy, fertilizer and transport costs are pushing up food prices while straining humanitarian operations, labour markets and remittance flows well beyond the immediate conflict zone.
The risks are especially concentrated in South Sudan, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen and Palestine, where conflict, displacement, climate exposure, funding gaps and structural gender inequality overlap. In South Sudan alone, the additional women and girls at risk would represent about one in seven of the country’s female population.
The agency warned that women often respond to scarcity by eating less, eating last or skipping meals, while unequal access to land, work and financial services leaves them with fewer resources to absorb price shocks.
UN Women called for targeted assistance, better gender-sensitive food-security data, de-escalation and respect for international law. Separate same-day reporting by Reuters on Yemen’s worsening hunger crisis also cited the UN Women estimate, providing independent confirmation of the headline figure.
References
- United Nations Office at Geneva — UN Geneva Press Briefing, 2 October 2026
- Reuters — Three in four families go hungry in parts of Yemen from new fighting, 2 October 2026
Featured photo: aes/Unsplash.