Famine: 258 million people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year, “stinging indictment” of failure to end world hunger

Report shows 258 million people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year, “stinging indictment” of failure to end world hunger

Karen Faulkner

 A new report by an international alliance of humanitarian organizations shows that 258 million people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year, the Associated Press reports. People facing acute food insecurity have so little food to eat that their lives and livelihoods are in immediate danger.

Founded by the United Nations and the European Union, the Global Report on Food Crises said last year’s acute food insecurity was a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other conflicts around the world, climate change, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, AP said. Last year was the fourth consecutive year in which the number of people facing acute food insecurity increased.

People in Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen faced starvation and death last year, the report said.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the report was a “stinging indictment of humanity’s failure” to implement UN goals to end world hunger, AP reports.

In a separate statement, Rein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, called for a “paradigm shift” that directs more funding for agricultural interventions that anticipate food crises and work to prevent them. “The challenge that we have is the disequilibrium, the mismatch that exists between the amount of funding money that’s given, what that funding is spent on, and the types of interventions that are required to make a change,” Paulsen said.