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.
The United Nations Humanitarian Chief announced Monday that Somalia is facing a second catastrophic famine, worse than that of 2011, in which 260,000 people died, DW reports. The causes of the impending catastrophe are manifold, including four years of drought and a decade of disruption wrought by an insurgency led by the Islamic State-affiliated al-Shabab terror group.
The United States has bought some 150,000 metric tons of grain from Ukraine for shipment to countries such as Kenya and Somalia, which have been beset by drought and are facing severe famine, the Associated Press reports.
Explosions rocked a critical Ukrainian port city Saturday, threatening a landmark food that the United Nations chief described as a “Beacon of Hope” for a hungry world.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations on Friday warned of what he said was the “real risk” of famine wracking the globe this year and the next, calling for a worldwide response to head off the possibility of a mass starvation event.
Hungary says it wants to open a route for food produce from wartorn Ukraine as starvation looms for hundreds of millions of people.
Over 7 million people across six East African countries are at the cusp of starvation as communities have faced existential threats from violence, flooding, the pandemic and locust infestation, the evangelical humanitarian organization World Vision has warned.
Developing countries like Somalia are facing famine as Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports prevents the distribution of grain, Sky News has reported. Ukraine exported sufficient grain to feed 400 million around the world last year, but this supply has been largely stopped since the ongoing Russian invasion.