Rising acute food insecurity and malnutrition in Mozambique
Drought, unpredictable rainfall patterns, high and rising food prices, and continued conflict and internal displacement are driving acute food insecurity in Mozambique. A new IPC alert released last week reports that between April and September 2025, more than 2 million people have experienced IPC Level 3 food insecurity and 143,000 people have experienced IPC Phase 4 food insecurity and malnutrition.
Without urgent action to ensure humanitarian aid and stabilize livelihoods, the alert emphasizes, the situation will only get worse. Between October 2025 and March 2026, many households will begin to eat down their food reserves, while food prices will experience seasonal elevations. At the same time, agricultural production will continue to be disrupted by ongoing conflict and displacement of populations in northern Mozambique. As a result, nearly 2.7 million people are projected to face IPC Level 3 or above food insecurity between October and March.
Acute malnutrition, and subsequent poor health outcomes including cholera and measles outbreaks, also poses a significant danger to wide swathes of the country’s population. Between April and September 2025, one district was classified as experiencing IPC Phase 3 (Severe) malnutrition, while six others experienced IPC Phase 2 (Alert) malnutrition. Nutrition and health outcomes are expected to deteriorate further through March 2026 as household food stores decline and more households face declines in access to clean water and health and sanitation services. Children under the age of five will be particularly impacted, with more than 114,000 children under five expected to face acute malnutrition and more than 23,000 expected to experience severe acute malnutrition.
Mozambique has consistently been listed as a protracted food crisis in the Global Report on Food Crises, with more than 3 million people facing acute food insecurity every year since 2022.
Recent cuts to food assistance throughout the country have placed vulnerable populations even more at risk. To prevent worsening hunger and malnutrition, IPC emphasizes that increased humanitarian assistance, particularly for displaced populations, will be needed, as well as programs to rebuild more resilient livelihoods in order to reduce dependence on food aid in the long term.