41 million people under risk of famine – WFP

The impact of conflicts, climate shocks, the Coronavirus Disease as well as lack of funding have left millions of people on the verge of famine than six months ago, the United Nations World Food Programme has said.

WFP Spokesperson, Phiri Tomson, said on Friday that 41 million people around the world were on the brink of famine, and that the slightest shock could tip them over the edge.

In an appeal for $5.5bn to avoid famine, Tomson said millions of refugees faced uncertainty and hunger, as the impact of the pandemic on emergency aid budgets became clearer.

The WFP is working round the clock to avert famine, he said.

It said, “We urgently need $5.5bn to do this. The price of doing nothing in the face of these growing hunger needs will inevitably be measured in terms of lost lives.

“Tragically, by the time a famine is declared, it’s already too late and thousands of people are already dying of hunger.”

Yemen and South Sudan face catastrophic levels of acute hunger, according to the Hunger Hotspots report released by WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The most recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis for Ethiopia’s Tigray region, issued in June, revealed that 5.5 million people there were grappling with high levels of acute food insecurity, with 350,000 already facing ‘catastrophic’ conditions.

“According to the latest IPC food insecurity assessments – which humanitarians used to assess needs on a scale of one to five – the 41 million are people who are in IPC phase 4 (emergency),” Tomson noted.

New refugee influxes linked to conflict and drought have increased needs for people in “IPC phase 5 (catastrophe) and that number stands at 584,000 people, he said.

“These are people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Madagascar, particularly the southern part; South Sudan, especially as we are now at the height of the lean season in that country, and Yemen,” Tomson also said.

Launching the Global Operational Response Plan, the WFP noted that the UN agency highlighted operations in no less than eight countries and regions where it had had to make “brutal choices” because of significant funding shortfalls.

In practice, this has meant reduced rations “across eastern and southern Africa, as well as the Middle East, among some of the world’s most vulnerable people who rely on WFP to survive.

“In some cases, it’s 40 per cent; in some cases 25, in some cases 60. The fact is, the assistance we provide is a basic need, enough to help people get by,” he said.

The pandemic left many vulnerable aid recipients in West and Central Africa without the opportunity to work to supplement their rations and pay for increasingly expensive staple foods.

“Countries like Chad, Niger, Burkina, Sierra Leone and Mauritania are all countries of concern,” Tomson said, after a warning by the UN agency that the world was no longer moving towards zero hunger.

“Progress has stalled, reverse and today, more than 270 million people are estimated to be acutely food insecure or at high risk in 2021.

“But what are the factors at play? Why is famine even an issue in a 21st Century world of abundant food, and how can it be finally consigned to history?” the WFP added.

Ehime Alex
Ehime Alex
Ehime Alex reports the Capital Market, Energy, and ICT. He is a skilled webmaster and digital media enthusiast.

Get in Touch

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related Articles