Report warns that millions will
be affected by food crises in 2019
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| Migrants fleeing drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa |
Tens of millions of people across the world will be affected
by food crises this year. The alarm comes in a report by the United Nation’s
Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme in collaboration
with the European Union.
By Linda Bordoni
In its annual report released on Tuesday, the Global
Network against Food Crises warns that war, extreme weather and
economic downfall in 2018 have left more than 113 million in dire need of help.
The report points to conflict and insecurity as the two main
causes of the desperate situation faced by 74 million people, or two-thirds of
those affected – worldwide - in the past year.
Analysing 53 countries, the report ranks its findings
according to a five-phase scale with the third level classified as crisis, the
fourth as emergency and the fifth as famine/catastrophe.
FAO's senior food crises analyst, warned that millions more
are now at risk of reaching level three and above, with huge numbers of people
who are not food insecure quite yet, but they are on the verge.
These people, he said, are "so fragile that it
just takes a bit of a drought" for them to fall into severe food crisis.
According to the report, of countries that suffered food
crises in 2018, the worst affected was Yemen, where nearly 16 million people
needed urgent food aid after four years of war, followed by the Democratic
Republic of Congo at 13 million and Afghanistan at 10.6 million.
It also dramatically forecast that climate shocks and
conflicts will continue to cause hunger in 2019, and highlighted special
concern for climate change in southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean,
while the needs of refugees and migrants in Bangladesh and Syria are expected
to remain high.
The study excluded 13 countries and territories including
North Korea, Venezuela and Western Sahara due to a lack of recently validated
data.
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