World faces ‘tsunami of hunger’ – UN food chief

THE UN food chief has warned that the world is facing “a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude”.

David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, said the 345 million people facing acute food insecurity in the 82 countries where the agency operated was two and a half times the number of acutely food insecure people before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

He told the UN Security Council it was very troubling that 50 million of those people in 45 countries were suffering from very acute malnutrition and were “knocking on famine’s door”.

“What was a wave of hunger is now a tsunami of hunger,” he said, pointing to rising conflict, the pandemic’s economic ripple effects, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24, Mr Beasley said, soaring food, fuel and fertiliser costs had driven 70 million people closer to starvation.

Despite the agreement in July allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped from three Black Sea ports that had been blockaded by Russia, and continuing efforts to get Russian fertiliser back to global markets, “there is a real and dangerous risk of multiple famines this year”, he said.

“And in 2023, the current food price crisis could develop into a food availability crisis if we don’t act.”

The Security Council was focusing on conflict-induced food insecurity and the risk of famine in Ethiopia, north-eastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

But Mr Beasley and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also warned about the food crisis in Somalia, which they both recently visited, and Mr Griffiths also put Afghanistan high on the list.

“Famine will happen in Somalia,” Mr Griffiths said, and “be sure it won’t be the only place, either”.

He cited recent assessments that identified “hundreds of thousands of people facing catastrophic levels of hunger”, meaning they are at the worst “famine” level.

Mr Beasley recalled his warning to the council in April 2020 “that we were then facing famine, starvation of biblical proportions”. He said the world then “stepped up with funding and tremendous response, and we averted catastrophe”.

“We are on the edge once again, even worse, and we must do all that we can – all hands on deck with every fibre of our bodies,” he said. “The hungry people of the world are counting on us and ... we must not let them down.”

Mr Griffiths said the widespread and increasing food insecurity was a result of the direct and indirect impact of conflict and violence that killed and injured civilians, forced families to flee the land they depended on for income and food, and led to economic decline and rising prices for food that they could not afford.

Mr Griffiths urged the Security Council to “leave no stone unturned” in trying to end conflicts, and to step up financing for humanitarian operations.