New York [USA], April 25: Dangerous levels of acute hunger affected a staggering 281.6 million people last year - the fifth year in a row that food insecurity has worsened - heightening growing fears of famine and "widespread death" from Gaza to Sudan and beyond, UN agencies warned on Wednesday.
According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises, more than one in five people in 59 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2023, compared with around just one in 10 in 48 countries in 2016.
"When we talk about acute food insecurity, we are talking about hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to people's livelihoods and lives. This is hunger that threatens to slide into famine and cause widespread death," said Dominique Burgeon, director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Liaison Office in Geneva.
The report - a joint initiative involving FAO, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) - found that although the overall percentage of people defined as dangerously food insecure last year was 1.2 percent lower than in 2022, the problem has worsened significantly since the COVID-19 crisis.
The report, which called the global outlook "bleak" for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.
The year 2023 was the fifth consecutive one with a rising number of people suffering acute food insecurity - defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.
About 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to 1.1 million in the war-ridden Palestinian territory.
Source: Qatar Tribune