The UN Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) is expanding assistance in the Horn of Africa as levels of hunger soar after back-to-back droughts and the threat of famine looms. Since the start of the year, nine million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat
Â鶹ÊÓƵ warns that the number of people teetering on the edge of famine (IPC4/Emergency or worse) in 43 countries has risen to 45 million, as acute hunger spikes around the world. This number has risen from 42 million earlier in the year and 27 million in 2019
The UN Â鶹ÊÓƵ warns that without urgent funding, one of the world¡¯s fastest-growing displacement crises in northern Mozambique risks becoming a hunger emergency as families continue to flee insurgent violence. The displacement has left at least 730,000 people in Cabo Delgado with no access to their lands and no means of earning a living. According to the latest food security data captured before the attacks in Palma town in late March 2021, nearly 228,000 people are highly food insecure. This number is projected to increase to 363,000 during the lean season beginning in October. Children are worst affected. Recent IPC data shows 75,000 children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition. The situation is projected to continue deteriorating, with more districts likely to move into the 'Critical' levels of malnutrition.
The Â鶹ÊÓƵ Executive Director, David Beasley, is urging the world to step-up and take action after bearing witness to the invisible crisis enveloping Southern Madagascar, where whole communities are teetering on the edge of starvation. Southern Madagascar is experiencing its worst drought in four decades with more than 1.14 million people food insecure. Of those, an estimated 14,000 people are already in catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5) and this will double to 28,000 by October. Â鶹ÊÓƵ has been working closely with the Malagasy government and other partners since late last year to address severe hunger. However, as the crisis deepens those efforts must be intensified. Last week Beasley met with the Prime Minister and senior officials to identify immediate and long-term solutions to this crisis.
The number of hungry people in Central America has nearly quadrupled over two years. Devastating hurricanes compounded economic shocks caused by COVID-19 leaving millions without an income and many planning to migrate.
Agricultural and coastal communities in the Dry Corridor have borne the brunt of a years-long climate emergency that was exacerbated by hurricanes Eta and Iota last year. They are struggling to meet even their most basic needs.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ calls on the international community to support its efforts in Central America to provide immediate assistance to hard-hit communities and build their resilience.
South Sudan is facing the highest levels of food insecurity since the country declared independence ten years ago. A hunger crisis looms where 60 percent (7.24 million) of its population is increasingly hungry due to chronic sporadic violence, extreme weather patterns and the economic impact of COVID-19.
The future of South Sudan depends on real peace and stability. While the causes of hunger are many, the biggest driver is conflict leading to displacements and loss of livelihoods. Â鶹ÊÓƵ¡¯s food assistance and livelihoods programmes help to lay the foundation for peace by providing hope to the hungry and creating opportunities to pull people out of poverty.
The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ is recognition of the important link between conflict and hunger and the critical role that food assistance plays in supporting the first step towards peace and stability.
As the Nobel Committee has said, the world today is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the Â鶹ÊÓƵ and other food assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they have requested.
The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ is today warning that unless humanitarian access is urgently granted to organizations like the Â鶹ÊÓƵ, catastrophic levels of hunger could hit hard in parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The stark warning comes ahead of the High-Level Ministerial Conference on the Central Sahel in Copenhagen on 20 October 2020.
Violence and insecurity have pushed 7.4 million people in the Central Sahel region of West Africa into acute hunger. The number of internally displaced people has risen from 70,000 two years ago to nearly 1.6 million today, including over 288,000 in Mali, more than 265,000 in Niger and over one million in Burkina Faso, which is now home to the world¡¯s fastest growing displacement crisis.
The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ is on the ground responding to the food needs of the most vulnerable people across Lebanon whose incomes, jobs and lives have been affected by the triple shock of the blast, COVID-19, and economic crisis. Â鶹ÊÓƵ is also providing immediate relief following last week¡¯s blasts.
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.
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.
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.
The volatile security situation in Idlib has rapidly displaced nearly one million people who are also contending with harsh winter weather conditions. Families are in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance as the amount of safe space for civilians across the northwest is shrinking by the day. Food prices in Idlib have risen by 120 percent.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ appeals to all parties to the conflict to end the fighting in Idlib and to allow people access to humanitarian assistance. A ceasefire is urgently needed to allow humanitarians to save lives.
