United Nations: David Beasley, the acting director of the United Nations World Food Program, warned Thursday that the world is facing a “global emergency situation of unprecedented magnitude” with 34.50 million people headed for starvation and 70 million more by the time the Ukraine war ends. There will be danger of starvation.
Beasley told the UN Security Council that among the 82 countries in which the agency is active, 34.500 million people face severe food insecurity, and this number is two and a half times higher in 2020 than before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. is more.
He said it was extremely worrying that 50 million people in 45 of these countries were suffering from severe malnutrition and were on the “brink of famine”.
Beasley pointed to the escalating conflict, the economic impact of the pandemic, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine, saying “the wave of hunger has now become a tsunami of hunger.”
He said 70 million people were headed for starvation due to rising prices of food, fuel and fertilizers since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Beasley said that despite Russia’s agreement in July to allow Ukrainian grain to be shipped from three Black Sea ports blocked and continued efforts to bring Russian fertilizers back to global markets, “there have been several famines this year”. of real risk.’
“If we do not take concrete steps, the current food price crisis in 2023 may soon turn into a food availability crisis,” he said.
United Nations Head of Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths warned of the food crisis in Somalia and Afghanistan.