West News Wire: According to a United Nations report, about 258 million people in 58 countries experienced severe food shortages last year as a result of armed conflict, climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, a significant increase from the 193 million who did so the year before.
People in seven of those nations Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen were at risk of starvation and death, according to the Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organisations established by the UN and the EU.
According to the report, the number of people needing urgent food help and experiencing acute food insecurity 258 million has climbed for the fourth year in a row, which is a “stinging indictment of humanity’s failure” to carry out UN goals to end world hunger.
“Rising poverty, deepening inequalities, rampant underdevelopment, the climate crisis and natural disasters also contribute to food insecurity,” Guterres said.
While the increase last year was due in part to more populations being analysed, the report also found that the severity of the problem increased as well, “highlighting a concerning trend of a deterioration”.
Rein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said an interplay of causes was driving hunger.
Conflicts, climatic shocks, the pandemic’s impact, and the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine on the world market for fertilisers, wheat, maize, and sunflower oil are a few of them. In the poorest nations that depend on food imports, the impact has been severe.
Paulsen called for a “paradigm shift” so that more financing is allocated to agricultural programmes that foresee food crises and seek to prevent them. “Prices have increased [and] those countries have been adversely affected,” he said.
