Maseru __ Several countries in the Southern African region including Lesotho have just been removed from the United Nation’s (UN)Hunger Hotspot list as harvests have significantly improved from the previous season’s drought.

This is according to the semi-annual Hunger Hotspots report by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Monday.

The countries which have been removed from the Hunger Hotspots list are Ethiopia, Kenya, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In East and Southern Africa, as well as in Niger, better climatic conditions for harvests and fewer weather extremes have eased food security pressures. Lebanon has also been delisted following reduced intensity of military operations.

However, FAO and WFP warn that these gains remain fragile and could reverse quickly if shocks re-emerge.

Tens of millions of people in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho were in need of food aid just a few months ago in the face of the 2023/24 El Niño event, which left a trail of misery and wilted crops in its wake.

The semi-annual Hunger Hotspots report is an early-warning and predictive analysis of deteriorating food crises for the next five months. Developed and published with financial support from the European Union through the Global Network Against Food Crisis.

A call for global solidarity

In multiple hotspots, aid delivery is significantly hampered by restricted humanitarian access due to insecurity, bureaucratic impediments, or physical isolation. At the same time, critical funding shortfalls are forcing reductions in food rations, limiting the reach of life-saving nutrition and agricultural interventions.

The Hunger Hotspots report highlights the importance of continued investments in early humanitarian action. Pre-emptive interventions save lives, reduce food gaps, and protect assets and livelihoods at a significantly lower cost than delayed humanitarian action.

What it means

Food inflation should cool in southern Africa and while the worst is over from last season’s poor harvests, hunger has hardly been eliminated from a region with sky-high rates of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Still, there are grounds for regional optimism. Zambia, for example, is reaping a record maize harvest and there is no sign of an imminent return of El Niño.

However, the UN report warns that people in five hunger hotspots around the world face extreme hunger and risk of starvation and death in the coming months unless there is urgent humanitarian action and a coordinated international effort to de-escalate conflict, stem displacement, and mount an urgent full-scale aid response.

The latest Hunger Hotspots report shows that Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali are hotspots of highest concern, with communities already facing famine, at risk of famine or confronted with catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity due to intensifying or persisting conflict, economic shocks, and natural hazards. The devastating crises are being exacerbated by growing access constraints and critical funding shortfalls.

Meanwhile Disaster Management Authority (DMA) through District Disaster Management Teams have recently concluded the 2025 Lesotho Vulnerability Assessment study which its report is scheduled for release in July.