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Reports from the agencies of the United Nations Organization, UN, published in June this year, show that in 2021 some 46 million more people suffered from hunger compared to just one year before, and 150 million more compared to the figures of 2019, while the number of acutely food insecure people rose from 135 to 193 million in just two years.
A wake up call. The food insecurity that the world is experiencing is unprecedented, especially due to man-made conflicts, said the heads of the United Nations agencies based in Rome during an event to commemorate World Food Day.
The director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, and the Executive Director of the UN World Food Program, assure that more people are driven to hunger every day and that the fight against famine it is more difficult than five years ago because of the conflicts.
“The number of hungry people continues to rise and currently stands at 828 million,” said Qu Dongyu, Director-General of FAO, in his opening address to other representatives of UN agencies as well as foreign ambassadors. , meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome.
“These numbers are sad confirmation that too many people are being left behind,” Qu said. UN calculations reveal that 750,000 people now live in famine conditions in just five countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, five times more than in 2020, a situation aggravated by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts.
“Just when you think it can’t get any worse, you have Ethiopia, then you have Afghanistan, and you think it can’t get any worse, and then the breadbasket of the world becomes a nation with the longest bread lines in the world,” he said. WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
Before the war, agriculture accounted for about 20% of Ukraine’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and 40% of export earnings, according to the FAO.
“How can we celebrate today?”: Beasley
The so-called “breadbasket of Europe” is invaded by Russia, leaving millions of people dependent on its cheap supplies of grain and sunflower oil in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia in uncertainty.
The war has damaged much of the country’s farmland, crops, livestock, machinery and storage facilities, as well as hampering transportation and exports.
Damage to the Ukrainian agricultural sector ranges between 4.3 and 6.4 billion dollars, according to the FAO, which represents between 15% and 22% of the total value of the Ukrainian agricultural sector, which, before the war, was estimated at 29,000 millions of dollars.
“How can we celebrate today?” Beasley asked the audience.
“I hear a lot of our friends in this room talking about Rome-based agencies collaborating more, my God, I need them to collaborate more and I need less war and less conflict, because if we can end war and conflict, we can end world hunger,” Beasley said.
“What worries me most is what is to come, that is, a food availability crisis, as the repercussions of conflict and climate change threaten to sabotage global food production in the coming months,” added Beasley.
Pope Francis and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for “working together” during the ceremony to celebrate World Food Day.
The pontiff stressed the need to work “to achieve fair and lasting solutions”, while Guterres expressed concern about the increase in the price of fuel and fertilizers caused by the war in Ukraine.
Hunger in Latin America at its highest point since 2000
In Africa, one in five people faced hunger in 2021, 20.2% of the population compared to 9.1% in Asia, 8.6% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 5.8% in Oceania and less than 2.5% in North America and Europe, the report says.
After increasing between 2019 and 2020 in most of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia, the prevalence of undernourishment continued to increase in 2021 in most subregions, but at a slower rate.
According to the agency, in 2021 hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean was at its highest point since 2000, reaching a total of 59.7 million people experiencing food insecurity.
Haiti alone recorded a record 4.7 million people in acute hunger, including 19,000 in catastrophic famine conditions for the first time, according to the FAO.
The organization points out that the crisis trapped Haitians “in a cycle of increasing desperation, without access to food, fuel, markets, jobs and public services, which has paralyzed the country.”
With EFE, AP
