KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Food insecurity is rising in many parts of Africa, with the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet surpassing 1 billion — some two-thirds of the continent’s population — in 2024, according to a United Nations report published Monday.
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The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa is more than double the global average of 28%, whereas figures from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania don’t reach that mark, the report said.
The annual report, produced by five U.N. agencies, analyzes trends in efforts to achieve the goal of zero hunger around the world by 2030. Those agencies include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program.
An estimated 8.2% of the global population may have faced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022, a positive trend that “contrasts with the steady rise in hunger in most subregions of Africa” and in western Asia, or parts of the Middle East and South Asia, the report said.
The prevalence of undernourishment, a key measure of progress, surpassed 20% in Africa and rose to 12.7% in western Asia, it said.
The report is the latest to suggest that eliminating food insecurity universally remains a serious challenge. Africa remains the most vulnerable continent.
According to the current projection, 512 million people in the world may be chronically undernourished in 2030, with nearly 60% of them to be found in Africa, the report said.
“We must urgently reverse this trajectory,” said Máximo Torero, chief economist with the FAO.
A major mark of distress is the number of Africans unable to afford a healthy diet. While the global figure fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, the number increased in Africa from 864 million to just over 1 billion during the same period.
That means the vast majority of Africans are unable to eat well on the continent of 1.5 billion people.
The U.N. warned in a report in October that conflicts, economic instability and climate shocks — in addition to reduced funding for emergency food and agriculture assistance — were driving alarming levels of acute food insecurity in 22 “hunger hot spots.”
That report, by FAO and WFP, mentioned Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Mali and the Palestinian territories as being of the “highest concern level.”
Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen were classified as “hotspots of very high concern,” where large numbers of people faced or were projected to face critical levels of acute food insecurity.
Torero, the FAO chief economist, said the situation in Africa is “concerning,” driven in part by the failure of agricultural production to keep up with population growth in many areas.
At the same time, he said, many parts of Africa face violent conflict and setbacks stemming from climate change.
“These shocks interact and reinforce each other, weakening already fragile agrifood systems,” he said, speaking about the latest U.N. report. “Conflict zones such as Sudan and the Sahel face particularly acute challenges. Additionally, climate poses a serious threat, particularly to the most vulnerable populations.”
ARICA, Chile (AP) — The Venezuelan gang members wrote out even their most minute purchases in blue pen: $15 for a drug trafficker’s Uber; $9 for instant coffee during a lookout shift; $34 for supplies to clean what investigators learned were torture chambers.
The meticulous spreadsheets seized during police raids in Chile’s northern town of Arica, and shared with The Associated Press, suggest the accounting structure of a multinational.
They amount to the most comprehensive documentation to date of the inner workings of Tren de Aragua, Latin America’s notorious criminal organization designated by President Donald Trump as a foreign terrorist group.
An investigation built over years by Chilean prosecutors in Arica, which resulted in hefty sentences for 34 people in March — and inspired other cases which, earlier this month, sent a dozen Tren de Aragua leaders to prison for a total of 300 years — contrasts with Trump’s mass deportations of suspected gang members.
While Trump’s supporters cheer the expulsions, investigators see missed opportunities to gather evidence aimed at uprooting the criminal network that has gained momentum across the region as migration from Venezuela surges and global cocaine demand spreads.
“With the U.S. snatching guys off the streets, they’re taking out the tip of the iceberg,” said Daniel Brunner, president of Brunner Sierra Group security firm and a former FBI agent. “They’re not looking at how the group operates.”
Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang attend a preliminary hearing facing homicide charges, in Santiago, Chile, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Organizational charts outlining suspects and links are displayed at the office of a prosecutor investigating the Tren de Aragua gang, in Arica, Chile, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Bodyguards stand guard as prosecutor Mario Carrera surveys the shantytown of Cerro Chuño, a stronghold of Los Gallegos, the northern Chilean offshoot of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, in Arica, Chile, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua sit handcuffed during a preliminary hearing where they face homicide charges, in Santiago, Chile, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
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Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang attend a preliminary hearing facing homicide charges, in Santiago, Chile, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Transnational mafias have fueled an extraordinary crime wave in once-peaceful nations like Chile and consolidated power in countries like Honduras and Peru, infiltrating state bureaucracies, crippling the capacities of law enforcement and jeopardizing regional stability.
The new developments are testing democracies across Latin America.
“This is not your typical corruption involving cash in envelopes,” said former Peruvian Interior Minister Ruben Vargas of the impunity in his country. “It’s having criminal operators wield power in the political system.”
Chile, long considered one of Latin America’s safest and wealthiest nations, is also among its least corrupt, according to watchdog Transparency International, giving authorities an edge in fending off this kind of organized crime.
But with no experience, the country was caught unprepared as abductions, dismemberments and other grisly crimes reshaped society.
Now, three years later, experts hold out Arica as a case study in wider efforts to combat the gang.
“Criminal prosecution, financial intelligence, witness protection and cooperation with other countries, that’s what it takes to disrupt criminal networks,” said Pablo Zeballos, a Chilean security consultant and former intelligence officer.
Using Tren de Aragua documents first recovered in 2022, Chilean prosecutor Bruno Hernández and his unit brought an unprecedented number of gang members to trial last year, dismantling the gang’s northern Chile offshoot, known as Los Gallegos.
“It marked a milestone,” prosecutor Mario Carrera said last month from Arica’s shantytown of Cerro Chuño, a Los Gallegos stronghold. “Until then, they were acting with impunity.”
Following migrants to ‘virgin territory’
Tren de Aragua slipped into northern Chile in 2021, after the pandemic shut borders and encouraged Venezuelans to turn to smugglers as they fled their nations’ crises and headed to Peru, Colombia and Chile.
Héctor Guerrero Flores — a Tren de Aragua leader nicknamed “Niño Guerrero” — dispatched managers to take over networks of “coyotes” shepherding human cargo across Chile’s desert borders.
“It was virgin territory from their perspective,” said Ronna Rísquez, the author of a book about the group.
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Tren de Aragua put down roots in Cerro Chuño, a former toxic waste dump outside Arica where Venezuelan migrants squeeze into boxlike homes.
Residents said gangsters extracted “protection” fees from shop owners and unleashed violence on those who wouldn’t pay.
“We live in fear of them,” said 38-year-old Saida Huanca, recalling how Los Gallegos extorted her minimarket colleague and sent a knife-wielding man to collect road tolls. “I didn’t leave the house.”
The gang terrorized competitors and turncoats.
Court documents describe members tying up defectors and filming as they administered shocks and slashed fingers in clandestine torture chambers.
Intercepted calls from March 2022, obtained by AP, show a rival panicking about Tren de Aragua’s arrival. “Where am I supposed to run, dude?” Chilean kingpin Marco Iguazo can be heard asking.
Bodies were found, shot or dismembered and stuffed into suitcases. Many were buried alive under cement.
“It was total psychosis,” said Carrera, who reported Arica homicides surging 215% from 2019 to 2022.
Cloud emojis and Christmas bonuses
Last month at Arica’s investigative police headquarters, AP observed Hernández attempt to persuade 23-year-old Wilmer López to talk. The alleged Los Gallegos hitman kept silent, eyes fixed on his Nikes.
As a rule, members don’t collaborate with investigations. Without testimony last year, Hernández’s main recourse was bookkeeping records. They revealed a rigid bureaucracy with centralized leadership that granted local cells autonomy.
“We had to prove not only that they committed crimes, but that there was a structure and pattern,” said paralegal Esperanza Amor, on Hernández’s team. “Otherwise they would’ve been tried as common criminals.”
Documents showed migrant smuggling and sex trafficking as the gang’s primary source of income.
While the per-client price for sex varies by city — $60 in Arica, over $100 in the capital of Santiago — each cell replicated the same structure. The gang confiscated half of women’s earnings, then deducted rent and food in a form of debt bondage.
Salary spreadsheets showed regional coordinators earning up to $1,200 monthly. Hitmen could earn $1,000 per job, plus protection for relatives in Venezuela. Most operatives received $200 Christmas bonuses.
Investigators cross-checked messages among gang members with drone surveillance to decrypt their use of emojis.
Some were self-explanatory — a snake signifying a traitor. Others less so: A bone meant debt, a pineapple was a safehouse, a raincloud warned of a raid.
Getting to trial
With the defendants in custody, the bloodshed abated: Arica’s homicide rate plunged from 17 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 to 9.9 homicides per 100,000 last year.
After the team secured 34 convictions on charges including aggravated homicide, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors, authorities paid more attention.
Similar investigations proliferated nationwide. Carrera traveled to Washington to share intelligence with the FBI.
“The unit did something that had never been done in Chile, and achieved results,” said Ignacio Castillo, director of organized crime at Chile’s public prosecutor’s office.
Other countries have largely struggled to prosecute Tren de Aragua.
“Those kind of yearslong investigations are not happening,” said Brunner. “I see the current deportation tactics as working in favor of organized crime.”
A country traumatized, and transformed
The next challenge for Hernández’s unit is tracking Los Gallegos as they regroup behind bars. Some Cerro Chuño businesses said they still receive extortion threats — from prison phones.
“Organized crime will always adapt,” Hernández said. “We need to get ahead.”
Despite the national homicide rate declining, enthusiasm for a more ruthless approach is spreading as leftist President Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader, battles for his legacy ahead of November presidential elections. Polls show security as voters’ top concern.
The current favorite is far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, who draws inspiration from Bukele and Trump. He vows to build a border barrier and deport undocumented migrants “no matter the cost.”
Watching her grandchildren play outside a church in Arica, Maria Peña Gonzalez, 70, said Kast had her vote.
“You can’t walk at night like you could before,” she said. “Chile has changed since different types of people started arriving.”
In February 2025, Minnesota Land Trust and Northern Waters Land Trust announced they were purchasing 431 acres from 3M. The 16 parcels will then be donated to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to create a new Mantrap Lake Wildlife Management Area.
Six parcels, totaling 187 acres and 2.26 miles of “pristine shoreline,” are currently listed for sale with Colliers on its website at Colliers.com.
A Minnesota-based Fortune 500 company, 3M is a maker of adhesives, medical and home cleaning supplies, building materials and more.
‘An opportunity so rare’
Colliers describes Wonewok as “an opportunity so rare, it almost defies categorization.”
The setting is “a rare combination of natural lakefront beauty and purpose-built retreat infrastructure,” says Colliers.
Wonewok features 15 primary buildings dispersed throughout the property, with a gross combined building area of 58,622 square feet. According to Colliers, this includes 36 fully appointed guest rooms, six cottages and numerous activity facilities, such as a trap-shooting range, tennis courts, lodge, restaurant, driving range and putting green.
John McCarthy, senior vice president for Colliers at their Minneapolis office, said the real estate firm is “pleased with the initial interest. People look at it, and they’re just blown away.”
They do scratch their heads, he said, about how best to use the former conference center, located at 21254 County 24, Park Rapids.
Corporate entertainment “isn’t as robust as it used to be,” McCarthy said, with many companies, like 3M, trying to “right size.”
Colliers isn’t advertising an asking price, but McCarthy assures potential buyers that there was “a very good deal on it” because of 3M’s strong investment.
The property has been shown to private investors, resort owners and all sorts, according to McCarthy.
He said he’s not quite sure what the property will become, and Colliers is looking for ideas. It may not go to the highest bidder, McCarthy added.
McCarthy estimated that, within the next 45 days or so, Colliers will make a call for offers from interested parties.
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RENO, Nev. (AP) — A gunman opened fire outside a casino and resort in Reno, Nevada, shooting multiple people Monday morning, police said.
The conditions of the victims were not immediately known, said Reno police spokesperson Chris Johnson. The gunman was taken into custody and was being treated at a hospital, Johnson said.
The shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m. Monday outside the casino in the valet area, Johnson said.
Police respond to a shooting outside the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Barron)
Police respond to a shooting outside the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Barron)
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Police respond to a shooting outside the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Barron)
A spokesperson with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department said an officer was involved in the shooting.
Reno police warned residents to stay out of the area. Multiple emergency vehicles, including several ambulances, responded outside the casino.
“My heart breaks for the victims, their families, and our entire community. Reno is strong — but we are not immune to the epidemic of gun violence gripping this nation,” city council member Devon Reese said in a social media post.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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