THE world has been placed on high famine alert, based on the latest report of two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP). The report highlights that found countries have areas that could soon face famine if conditions continue to worsen in the following months.
The report titled Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots presents that the toxic combination of conflict, economic decline, extreme climate, and the COVID-19 pushes people towards an emergency level of food insecurity. The four hotspots that are at high risk of facing famine are Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen. At present, specific areas in these countries are facing critical hunger situations; and another set of 16 countries have been reported at high risk of rising levels of acute hunger.
The report presents urgent action that can be taken to avoid a major emergency or series of emergencies, in 3 to 6 months. “We are deeply concerned about the combined impact of several crises which are eroding people’s ability to produce and access food, leaving them more and more at risk of the most extreme hunger. We need access to these populations to ensure they have food and the means to produce food and improve their livelihoods to prevent a worst-case scenario,” said Dominique Burgeon, FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience.
