Acute hunger will increase in over 20 countries if the global community does not take action soon, the United Nations said in a report released Tuesday by the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Around the world, 34 million people already suffer from extreme malnutrition, which means they are close to dying from starvation, the FAO and WFP wrote.
“We are seeing a catastrophe unfold before our very eyes. Famine — driven by conflict, and fueled by climate shocks and the COVID-19 hunger pandemic — is knocking on the door for millions of families,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
The situation was especially critical in war-torn Yemen, in South Sudan and in northern Nigeria, according to the report.
Although the majority of crisis areas were in Africa, acute hunger could also increase in many other countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and Haiti, the report found.
“Targeted humanitarian action is needed to prevent hunger or death in these most at-risk situations and to safeguard the most vulnerable communities,” the UN Hunger Hotspots report said.
Parts of the populations in these countries are already experiencing “extreme depletion of livelihoods, insufficient food consumption and high acute malnutrition,” the joint report warned.
“We urgently need three things to stop millions from dying of starvation: the fighting has to stop, we must be allowed access to vulnerable communities to provide life-saving help, and, above all, we need donors to step up with the $5.5 billion we are asking for this year,” Beasley added.
