Nearly 2.3 million children under the age of five in Yemen are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, four United Nations agencies warned today. Of these, 400,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and could die if they do not receive urgent treatment.
The new figures, from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Malnutrition report released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Â鶹ÊÓƵ), the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, mark an increase of 16 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, from 2020.
The agencies also warned that these were among the highest levels of severe acute malnutrition recorded in Yemen since the escalation of conflict in 2015.
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.
The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ is alarmed at growing numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia and Sudan because of conflict in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia between the Ethiopian National Defence Forces and Tigray People¡¯s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The violence has displaced upwards of 100,000 civilians fleeing conflict internally and externally.
The biggest issue hampering a humanitarian response is a lack of access for organizations, including Â鶹ÊÓƵ, both into and within the Tigray region.
Any response to assist people in need in Ethiopia is planned and conducted with the leadership of the federal and regional governments.
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.
South Sudan is bracing itself for a crisis. Humanitarian conditions are rapidly deteriorating, and the spectre of terrible levels of hunger looms over the country as conflict, torrential rain and flooding disrupt people¡¯s access to food.
More than 700,000 people across South Sudan have been affected by flooding since June, especially in Jonglei and Unity States where the flooding is at its most severe. Â鶹ÊÓƵ provided food assistance to more than 500,000 people in flood-affected areas in July and August.
SANA¡¯A ¨C Yemen is at a tipping point as conflict and economic woes drag the country to the brink of famine and risk cancelling out the gains made through humanitarian action in the past few years, the United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ warns today.
Conflict has escalated across more than 40 frontlines, the cost of basic foods is higher than ever before and the currency has lost 25 percent of its value in 2020 alone ¨C 70 percent compared to its pre-war value. As the country¡¯s foreign currency reserves tick towards zero Yemen¡¯s ability to import food could also disappear, threatening more hunger for millions.
For the last six months, families in areas controlled by the Sana¡¯a authorities have only received food assistance on alternate months as Â鶹ÊÓƵ has tried to stretch its limited resources and avoid full breaks in assistance. But this has made life harder for millions: in just three months people with inadequate food consumption in these areas increased from 28 to 43 percent, according to Â鶹ÊÓƵ data.
MAPUTO ¨C Â鶹ÊÓƵ is extremely concerned about the escalating conflict and deteriorating food security situation in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where over 300,000 people have fled their homes and villages, abandoning their crops and leaving them completely reliant on humanitarian assistance.
Growing violence and insecurity have increased the threat of hunger in the northern province of Cabo Delgado as communities have lost access to food and income sources. Latest findings from famine early warning system FEWSNET indicate that communities will continue to face ¡®crisis¡¯ levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) into early 2021. The situation is even more worrisome given that Cabo Delgado has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the country with more than half of children under 5 chronically malnourished. Any additional shocks could rapidly worsen the situation, especially for women and children.
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.¡±
ROME ¨C The United Nations Â鶹ÊÓƵ with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Children's Fund and partners, today released the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis for 133 districts in Yemen (http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/ipc-alerts/issue-24/en/).
The forecast:
More than 1 million more people in the southern areas of Yemen will face acute food insecurity by the end of the year, according to the analysis.
Acute food insecurity will increase from the current 25 percent of the population to 40 percent by the end of the year in the areas surveyed ¨C an increase from 2 million people to 3.2 million people out of a surveyed population of 7.9 million.
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.
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.
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.
Hunger continues to persist in South Sudan and is widely expected to worsen in the coming months if assistance is not scaled up. This is mainly due to the longer-term effects of the conflict which has also forced tens of thousands of families to remain in temporary shelters and millions of people to seek refuge outside the country.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ renews its call for sustained peace and urges parties to the revitalized peace process to maintain peace. If peace holds, the country has a realistic chance of bringing communities together, end years of isolation and inequity as well as eliminating hunger in the country.
