First famines of pandemic are at world’s doorstep, U.N. warns
The first famines of the coronavirus era could soon hit four chronically food-deprived conflict areas — Yemen, South Sudan, northeast Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo — the top humanitarian official of the United Nations has warned.
In a letter to members of the Security Council, the official, Mark Lowcock, said the risk of famines in these areas had been intensified by “natural disasters, economic shocks and publichealth crises, all compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Together, he said, “these factors are endangering the lives of millions of women, men and children.”
The letter was conveyed by Lowcock’s office to the Security Council on Friday under its 2018 resolution requiring updates when “the risk of conflict-induced famine and widespread food insecurity” occurs.
U.N. officials have said before that all four areas are vulnerable to acute food deprivation because of chronic armed conflicts and the inability of humanitarian relief providers to distribute aid freely.
In April, David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, the anti-hunger arm of the U.N., warned the Security Council that while the world is contending with the coronavirus pandemic, “we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic.”
Lowcock, the U.N.’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, effectively escalated the warning, saying a lack of funding for emergency relief and the complications created by the coronavirus scourge have now pushed some of the world’s neediest populations closer to famine conditions.
In Yemen, where famine was averted two years ago, Lowcock said “the risk is slowly returning.” The country, the poorest in the Arab world, has been ravaged for more than five years by a civil war that has left 80% of the country dependent on outside aid.
In the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where decades of conflict have worsened this year, Lowcock said 21 million people are living in “crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.”