50 million people in 45 countries face the “hell” of famine, UN food Chief says
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) chief has announced that around 50 million people in 45 countries are facing the “hell” of famine amid a catalog of world crises he described as “a perfect storm on top of a perfect storm,” Associated Press reports. WFP Executive Director David Beasley said the world must act immediately to prevent rampant food shortages next year.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Beasley listed the pandemic, climate change, the Russia-Ukraine war, and massive shortages in energy and fertilizer supplies as leading causes of a dire situation.
“[There are] 50 million people in 45 countries knocking on famine’s door,” Beasley said. “If we don’t reach these people, you will have famine, starvation, destabilization of nations unlike anything we saw in 2007-2008 and 2011, and you will have mass migration.”
“We’ve got to respond now,” Beasley urged, calling on world billionaires and on Gulf nations benefiting from high oil prices in particular to step up their aid and help with necessary finances.
“It’s a perfect storm on top of a perfect storm,” Beasley said. “And with the fertilizer crisis we’re facing right now, with droughts, we’re facing a food pricing problem in 2022. This created havoc around the world. If we don’t get on top of this quickly — and I don’t mean next year, I mean this year — you will have a food availability problem in 2023. And that’s gonna be hell.”
