UN: 282M Faced Acute Hunger in 2023    04/25 06:22

   

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered 
from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest 
number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises 
released Wednesday.

   The U.N. report said 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than 
in 2022, due to the sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the 
Gaza Strip and Sudan. The number of nations with food crises that are monitored 
has also been expanded.

   Mximo Torero, chief economist for the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture 
Organization, said 705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5, the highest 
level, on a scale of hunger determined by international experts -- the highest 
number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year.

   Over 80% of those facing imminent famine -- 577,000 people -- were in Gaza, 
he said. South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali each host many thousands 
also facing catastrophic hunger.

   According to the report's future outlook, around 1.1 million people in Gaza, 
where the Israel-Hamas war is now in its seventh month, and 79,000 in South 
Sudan are projected to be in Phase 5 and facing famine by July.

   It said conflict will also continue to drive food insecurity in Haiti, where 
gangs control large portions of the capital.

   Additionally, while the El Nino phenomenon peaked in early 2024, "its full 
impact on food security -- including flooding and poor rain in parts of east 
Africa and drought in southern Africa, especially Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe 
-- are like to manifest throughout the year."

   U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report "a roll call of 
human failings," and that "in a world of plenty, children are starving to 
death."

   "The conflicts erupting over the past 12 months compound a dire global 
situation," he wrote in the report's foreword.

   Guterres highlighted the conflict in the Gaza Strip, as the enclave holds 
the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger. There is also the 
year-old conflict in Sudan, which has created the world's largest internal 
displacement crisis "with atrocious impacts on hunger and nutrition," he added.

   According to the report, over 36 million people in 39 countries and 
territories are facing an acute hunger emergency, a step below the famine level 
in Phase 4, with more than a third in Sudan and Afghanistan. It's an increase 
of a million people from 2022, the report said.

   Arif Husain, the U.N. World Food Program's chief economist, said every year 
since 2016 the numbers of people acutely food insecure have gone up, and they 
are now more than double the numbers before the COVID-19 pandemic.

   While the report looks at 59 countries, he said the target is to get data 
from 73 countries where there are people who are acutely food insecure.

   Secretary-General Guterres called for an urgent response to the report's 
findings that addresses the underlying causes of acute hunger and malnutrition 
while transforming the systems that supply food. Funding is also not keeping 
pace with the needs, he stressed.

   "We must have the funding, and we also must have the access," WFP's Husain 
said, stressing that both "go hand-in-hand" and are essential to tackle acute 
food insecurity.

   The report is the flagship publication of the Food Security Information 
Network and is based on a collaboration of 16 partners including U.N. agencies, 
regional and multinational bodies, the European Union, the U.S. Agency for 
International Development, technical organizations and others.