The World Report on Food Crises, a coalition of humanitarian organizations founded by the United Nations and the European Union, says people are facing starvation and death in seven countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report revealed the suffering of 258 million acutely food insecure people and their need for urgent food aid, up from 193 million in 2021, saying in the same time that the number has increased for the fourth consecutive year, which is considered a “conviction”.
The report also revealed the growing severity of the problem, “highlighting a worrying trend”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this reality is a disgrace to humanity because it has not led to progress towards ending hunger, which is the United Nations’ second development goal. sustainable.
Rene Paulsen, director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said that the overlapping causes lead to the spread of hunger, explaining that the causes include conflicts, climatic shocks, the impact of the pandemic, and the consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine, which have impacted international trade in fertilizers, wheat, corn and sunflower oil.
The impact has been most severe in the poorest countries that depend on food imports.
“Prices have gone up…and those countries have been negatively affected,” Poulsen said.
He called for a “paradigm shift” so that more investment funds are spent on agricultural centers that anticipate food crises and aim to prevent them.
“The challenge we face is the imbalance and mismatch that exists between the amount of funding provided, the spending aspects of that funding, and the types of interventions needed to effect change,” he added. .
Extreme weather events linked to climate change, such as the historic drought in the Horn of Africa or the devastating floods in Pakistan, have also been a major cause of worsening food insecurity.
Acute food insecurity results from a person’s inability to obtain adequate food, which poses a significant risk to their life or livelihood.
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
