Hunger threatens the lives of nearly 1 million people worldwide, warns UN

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About 1 million people in countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen are threatened by a “catastrophic famine” and are at risk of dying in the coming months if humanitarian aid does not arrive, warned this Wednesday (21) a United Nations report. .

This record number is a consequence of the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa, indicated a report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and the WFP (World Food Programme).

The report details the situation in 19 countries considered “hot spots” of hunger in the world, six of which are on “high alert”, according to the UN: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

In these six countries, by January 2023, 970,000 people are expected to meet the criteria of the so-called “disaster” phase (5), the highest level of food safety classification (FSC).

These are situations in which “starvation and death are an everyday reality and extreme levels of mortality and malnutrition can occur if action is not taken immediately.”

This estimate is ten times higher than six years ago and is “driven by conflict, climate change and economic instability, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the crisis in Ukraine,” according to the report.

World leaders on Tuesday called for greater efforts to tackle growing global food insecurity.

US President Joe Biden also announced on Wednesday $2.9 billion in new aid to fight hunger.

Guatemala, Honduras and Malawi are on the UN’s list of “hunger hot spots”.

The organization is also concerned about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya and Syria, which it considers “very worrying”.

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