Children aged under five living in the world’s deadliest conflict zones are no closer to escaping hunger a decade after world leaders committed to ending child malnutrition, said Save the Children.
As leaders meet at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an analysis of the latest data by Save the Children found in 20 conflict-affected countries,1 about 44 million children aged under 5 – more than on in three- were stunted. This figure has not improved since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015.2
Globally 150 million children were stunted in 2024, 3 far off a global target to reduce this number to 108 million by 2025. Stunting – when children are too short for their age due to chronic undernutrition – can cause life-long physical and cognitive damage.
Equally alarming, acute malnutrition – the most life-threatening form of malnutrition also known as wasting – has failed to decline in line with the global targets agreed by the 193 UN member states a decade ago. Rates are notably high in some conflict zones including Sudan, Yemen and Gaza.4
SDG 2.2, which aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, set interim targets to reduce the number of acutely malnourished children under 5 to 32 million5 but at least 43 million children globally were acutely malnourished in 2024.
The analysis comes as 30 organisations, including Save the Children, today sounded the alarm on the child malnutrition crisis, calling on world leaders to take action. While malnutrition globally has been declining, progress has stalled and been uneven, and aid cuts raise the risk of backsliding.
Conflict is the main driver of 20 of the world’s 53 worst food crises, including in Gaza and Sudan where violence, coupled with severely restricted access and denials of aid have triggered famine classifications and put thousands of severely malnourished children at heightened risk of death.6
Conflict has a devastating impact on people’s ability to grow or buy food, forces families from their homes and destroys farmland and infrastructure. In some of the worst cases, starvation is used as a method of warfare.
Since the conflict began in Yemen in 2014, Maha*, 32, and her family have been displaced multiple times while food prices have skyrocketed, making it difficult for Maha to provide for her children, especially as her husband is sick and unable to work. The family have regularly gone without food for days which affected the health of Maha’s youngest daughter, Amal*, 9 months old, who became severely malnourished.
Maha said: “I have no steady source of food. Sometimes I ask others for help, and I go to the market to look for cheap food like bread or dried fish so we can ease our hunger. We usually eat one meal every day, dividing it into half for the morning and half for the evening. There have been hundreds of times when my children and I went a whole day without a single meal.”
After being diagnosed through a Save the Children screening programme, Amal was enrolled for treatment where she received therapeutic food and medical care, while Maha was taught about nutrition, hygiene, and infant and young child feeding.
Mohamad Alasmar, Save the Children's UN Representative, said:
“It is completely unacceptable that 10 years after world leaders pledged to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, progress is stalled as 150 million children are stunted and 43 million are acutely malnourished, including millions who live in the world’s toughest conflict zones.
“Each day that progress is stalled is not just another data point, it’s more children that lose their lives or are irreparably harmed by malnutrition’s devastating lifelong effects.
“Children should not be forced to pay a lifelong price for global inaction. We have the power to stop malnutrition by promoting equitable access to nutritious food, tackling the climate crisis, building more resilient food and health systems, and ending the wars that disrupt children’s lives, including their access to food.
“Violence and deliberate blockades or denials of humanitarian access prevent delivery of life-saving nutrition services and actively drives malnutrition in places such as Gaza and Sudan. Ending malnutrition in places in conflict requires urgent political solutions to resolve these conflicts and guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access.
“The international community must urgently act to meet its promise to end malnutrition in the next five years instead of cutting nutrition funding at a time when it is needed more than ever. Otherwise in many places starvation and mass child mortality is imminent.”
The Global Nutrition Cluster - a group of humanitarian organisations which includes Save the Children - estimates there is a 72% gap in funding for humanitarian nutrition despite funding appeals reduced to the minimum needed to save lives following aid cuts. Of the $659 million needed for the remaining four months of 2025, only $186 million has been secured, leaving a $473 million shortfall.
Save the Children has been providing life-saving nutritional support to children for over 100 years. Between 2022-2024, Save the Children supported 43.5 million children and their families globally to aim to prevent malnutrition, but this support is now at risk.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT: media.team@savethechildren.org.au
*Names changed to protect identity