As a result of conflict, economic shocks and climate disasters, food insecurity worsened globally in 2022, with 258 million people in need of emergency food aid compared to 193 million the previous year, several United Nations agencies reported today.

“This seventh edition of the World Food Crisis Report is a scathing indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress towards eradicating hunger, the UN’s No. 2 Sustainable Development Goal,” said the UN secretary-general. Antonio Guterresin the introduction of the report.

Acute food insecurity Increased “for the fourth consecutive year” with millions of people “suffering from such severe hunger that it directly threatens their lives”, note the 17 agencies of this network, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, the World Food Program (WFP) or even the European Union.

The report includes five countries more than the previous one, i.e. 58 countries, which contributes to the increase of these numbers.

Acute food insecurity “remains at an unacceptable level”, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria or even Yemen, according to the report.

“Conflict remains a key factor in food crises,” the UN said in a summary of the report, but the economic shocks related to Covid-19 and the consequences of the war in Ukraine weighed heavily on some countries in 2022.

Extreme weather events related to climate change, such as the drought of historic proportions in the Horn of Africa or the devastating floods in Pakistan, are also important factors in exacerbating this food insecurity.