This outbreak comes at a particularly dangerous moment: 26.5 million people across DRC are already facing acute food insecurity, with needs far outpacing the response.
The humanitarian response in Gaza is nearing collapse as the threat of famine gets closer. The breakdown of law and order and disregard for international humanitarian principles are placing humanitarian staff, operations and the people of Gaza at increasing risk. Â鶹ÊÓƵ and partner humanitarian agencies need solutions that address the breakdown of law and order, and for all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to allow for the safe passage of aid.
Everyone in Gaza is hungry and each day is a desperate search for food. People often go the entire day and night without eating. Adults go hungry so children can eat. According to the latest data, the risk of famine increases each day as the conflict limits the delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance to people in need.
From January to September 2020, Â鶹ÊÓƵ reached 6.7 million food insecure girls, boys, women and men across the country with food assistance. This included 4.5 million seasonally food insecure people, more than 290,000 people affected by the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 more than 200,00 returnees and refugees.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s nutrition programme helped to treat or prevent more than 1 million girls and boys under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
Until the end of the year, Â鶹ÊÓƵ Afghanistan plans to reach 10.2 million people, including 3 million affected by the socio-economic impact of COVID-19.
Distributions and activities across the country were adjusted to ensure the safety of the people Â鶹ÊÓƵ serves, our partners and Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s staff and to help quell the spread of the coronavirus.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ Chief David Beasley addressed the UN Security Council to warn that in many vulnerable countries the economic effects of the COVID19 pandemic could cause more deaths from hunger than the virus itself especially in areas of conflict like NE Nigeria, DR Congo, Yemen and South Sudan.
¡°This is obviously a great danger that many more people will die from the broader economic and social consequences of COVID-19 than from the virus itself, especially in Africa and the last thing we need is to have the cure be worst than the disease itself. And so your continued support for humanitarian programs is critical right now.¡±
Â鶹ÊÓƵ is on the ground responding to the immediate and longer term food needs of the most vulnerable people across Lebanon. The country has been hit hard by the triple shock of the blast, COVID-19, and the economic crisis, with severe consequences for lives and livelihoods.
These devastating events come as Lebanon faces its worst ever financial crisis - at a time of soaring unemployment and salary cuts with many families struggling to make ends meet.
As Corona-Virus cases soar, Latin America has become the region most impacted by COVID-19 globally, accounting for over a quarter of the world¡¯s cases. The health pandemic is driving hunger and food insecurity which risks fuelling conflict and political unrest and forcing vulnerable families to migrate. Â鶹ÊÓƵ urgently needs additional funding of US$328 million to support relief and recovery operations in the region.
The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ today announced a massive rise in the number of hungry people it plans to assist around the world, as the devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic push millions more people into food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries.
To tackle the rising tide of hunger, Â鶹ÊÓƵ is undertaking the biggest humanitarian response in its history, ramping up the number of people it assists to up to 138 million from a record 97 million in 2019. But sustained funding is urgently required to respond to the immediate consequences of the pandemic on the most vulnerable, and support governments and partners as they curb the spread of the disease and deal with the fallout from the pandemic. Â鶹ÊÓƵ is appealing for a US$ 4.9 billion over the next six months for its life-saving work in 83 countries.
As well as delivering life-saving assistance on the front-lines of hunger, Â鶹ÊÓƵ is uniquely positioned to help governments assist and empower vulnerable communities through support to social protection systems, access to basic school-based and nutrition services, and support to food systems.
Syrians today face an unprecedented hunger crisis as the prices of basic foods reach levels unseen even at the height of the nine-year conflict and millions of people are pushed deeper into poverty the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ says, on the eve of a donors pledging conference for Syria.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ estimates that 9.3 million Syrians are now food insecure ¨C with an increase of 1.4 million in the last six months alone.
A toxic cocktail of conflict, economic standstill, the freefall of the Lebanese economy - which is a vital bridge to Syria¡¯s - and COVID-19 lockdown measures, has pushed food prices more than 200% higher in less than a year.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ urgently requires US$200 million to continue to provide food assistance in Syria until the end of the year. Unless new funding is available by August, Â鶹ÊÓƵ will be forced to drastically cut rations as well as the number of people reached with food as of October 2020.
With much of the world¡¯s commercial transport systems, particularly airlines, grounded by COVID-19, Â鶹ÊÓƵ - the world¡¯s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger and a global leader in logistics ¨C has stepped in to move passengers and huge volumes of health and other supplies needed in the fight against the global pandemic.
Other Common Service facilities which Â鶹ÊÓƵ has helped set up for the humanitarian and health community include two field hospitals, one in East and the other in West Africa, and to date 16 medical evacuations have been carried out, including with Â鶹ÊÓƵ-contracted air ambulances.
On 20 May Cyclone Amphan made landfall in Bangladesh heavily impacting 19 districts with more than 2.4 million people and 500,000 livestock evacuated to 15,000 cyclone shelters by the Government of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is facing a growing number of COVID-19 cases and the impact threatens to reverse development gains made over the past five decades.
The COVID-19 virus can be deadly, but hunger is equally deadly. To ensure the most vulnerable are not left behind in the response to this pandemic, Â鶹ÊÓƵ urgently needs US$200 million for its COVID-19 response in Bangladesh.
Coronavirus may push an additional 10 million of the world¡¯s children into acute malnutrition. The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ estimates that the number of young children suffering from this life-threatening form of undernutrition could increase by 20 percent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ is ready to scale up its response to prevent and treat acute malnutrition and improve nutritious diets of children but urgently needs US$300 million to do so.
Acute malnutrition is caused by inadequate food consumption or illness, or both, resulting in sudden weight loss that, if untreated, can lead to death.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ is focusing efforts on mobilizing the resources it needs to provide food assistance to the 100 million people it set out to support in 2020. Food assistance offers a lifeline to vulnerable communities and boosting social protection systems will be vital to safeguarding an additional 130 million people at risk of slipping into hunger in 2020 due to the pandemic (on top of the 135 million people already acutely hungry before COVID-19).
ROME/LI?GE ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ today kick-started a network of global logistics hubs that will support the entire aid community and ensure the delivery of vital medical and humanitarian supplies to developing countries at a time when commercial air transport is at a virtual standstill.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ is also mounting a regional passenger air service to ferry humanitarian and health workers across East and West Africa to overcome disruptions to commercial air services, with the first flights expected in coming days. The service will be expanded to the Middle East, Latin America and Asia soon. Â鶹ÊÓƵ also stands ready to set up air links with Geneva and Rome if commercial services are disrupted.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ appealed for an initial US$350 million to kick-start global common logistics services, a call echoed by humanitarian partners in April, who highlighted the urgency of these vital Â鶹ÊÓƵ-led efforts.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ stands ready to set up the logistics backbone for global COVID-19 efforts, but it urgently needs US$350 million to do this.
A silent hunger pandemic is poised to sweep across the world, sowing seeds of famine in its wake. Â鶹ÊÓƵ analysis shows that almost a quarter of a billion people could be pushed into severe hunger by the fallout from COVID-19.
It¡¯s vital that at this time of global crisis Â鶹ÊÓƵ maintain its food assistance programmes which offer a lifeline to almost 100 million vulnerable people around the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic could almost double the number of people suffering acute hunger, pushing it to more than a quarter of a billion by the end of 2020, the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ warned today as it and other partners released a new report on food crises around the world.
The number of people facing acute food insecurity (IPC/CH 3 or worse) will rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19, according to a Â鶹ÊÓƵ projection. The estimate was announced alongside the release of the Global Report on Food Crises, produced by Â鶹ÊÓƵ and 15 other humanitarian and development partners.
In this context, it is vital that food assistance programme be maintained, including Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s own programmes which offer a lifeline to almost 100 million vulnerable people globally.
It¡¯s vital that at this time of global crisis Â鶹ÊÓƵ maintain its food assistance programmes which offer a lifeline to 87 million vulnerable people around the world. Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s top priority is to ensure it has the resources in place to meet the food and nutrition needs of the people that so depend on its assistance.
The pandemic is affecting countries in different ways. On behalf of the international community, Â鶹ÊÓƵ is providing real-time tracking of changes in the areas of food security, health access and markets in vulnerable countries. Monitoring will be complemented with early warning and security analysis of how the pandemic is impacting food and other vulnerabilities.
